Moving on
by DelenaAddicted
Summary: Elena return from a trip with her friends, and finds out that after Jeremy has been dead for two years, her mother has a new boyfriend, and is ready to move on.
1. Chapter 1

****So this is the first fanfiction i've written, and i'm really nervous about this. So please let me know what you think :)

**Moving on **

Chapter 1**  
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"So what are you thinking about?" Caroline asked while Elena looked out of the window of the cab.

Elena, Bonnie and Caroline were on their way home from the airport. They had just been to France with Caroline's father, Bill and Bonnie's cousin, Lucy.

"Elena?" Caroline asked louder than last time.

Elena woke up from her daydream. "What?" she asked.

"What were you thinking about?" Caroline asked her again.

"Nothing" Elena said and shook her head.

Caroline and Bonnie exchanged looks. "What?" Bonnie asked and gave Elena a push I the side of her. "You never daydream when you are with us, unless you're thinking about something" Caroline said.

"It's my mom" Elena started. "She's gotten a new boyfriend."

"That's great" Bonnie said.

"No it's not" Elena said and paused. "I mean, I just don't want her to get hurt again." Elena's father Grayson had left her mother right after her little brother Jeremy was born. Elena sighed thinking about what she should say, but she couldn't say anything, just the thought of her brother made her sad. Jeremy had died 2 years ago, and it still made her sad she always thought that it would get better, because that was what people always said to her, but they were wrong, guess they didn't love the ones that they had lost as much as she loved her brother.

"Is the first time since… Jeremy?" Caroline asked.

"Yeah… and she says that he has kids," Elena said sadly. "I guess I should be happy for her but… I just… can't."

The cab stopped and Elena got out I grabbed her suitcase from the back of the car.

"Elena?"Caroline said. "If you need to talk... You'll call us, right?"

"Of course I will, Care" she answered.

Elena went inside she shut the door a little too hard, because now she knew that her mom had heard it, and she didn't really want to talk to her. She just wanted to rest and she could deal with everything afterwards, but…

"Elena!" her mom said gladly coming from the living room.

Elena faked a smile. "Mom. Hi." She said.

"I'm glad that you're finally home. I've missed you so much" her mom said and gave her a hug. Elena didn't hug her back. "Are you okay?" her mom askedand stepped away from her.

"Yeah I'm fine, I'm just tired and I would really like to get a shower," Elena said and faked another smile.

"Okay sweetie," her mom said smiling and brushed her daughter's hair. "Just go up and take a shower and I'll take your suitcase to your room."

Elena smiled and went upstairs to her room. When she got into her room she went straight to her bed and lay down.

Thanks for reading please leave a review :)


	2. Chapter 2

**So here is the next chapter don't really know what to say, but let me know what you think :)**

****Chapter 2

The next morning Elena's mom came to her room. She sat down on her daughter's bed. "Elena? Sweety?"

Elena groaned and snuggled her face in her pillow.

"We need to talk," Elena felt her mother's hand on her back.

"Yeah…" Elena said in a low voice.

"Can you come down stairs? Take a shower first," she smiled. "You fell asleep before you got a shower."

…

"Elena?" Are you listening to me?"

"Yes" she lifted her head from the pillow so her mom could hear her. "Just give me 15 minutes."

"Okay" her mom said and went downstairs.

Elena closed her eyes. She didn't want to have this conversation. She didn't to know about her mother's new _boyfriend._

XXXXX

Elena walked into the kitchen, and walked over to the coffee machine, and pored coffee in a cup, she walked over to the table and sat down.

"Do you want any breakfast?" her mother asked and smiled.

"No."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm not hungry." Elena said coldly. "What did you want to talk about?" she stared at her mom.

"You probably remember when I told you that I met this guy…" her mom said.

"Really?" Elena said ironically. "Totally forgot." She said and lifted an eyebrow.

"Elena" her mom said and gave her a serious look. "I'm serious! I just need to know that you are okay with me dating, before it goes any further between me and him. And I want you to know that if this isn't okay with you, then nothing will happen."

"I… I don't know."

"I'm sure that you would like him, he is really sweet and he would like to meet you," her mother smiled just talking about him.

She wasn't okay with this she wanted to be, because just when her mother had talk about him, she smiled. Elena was happy for her mom, but the fact that he had kids, made her think that her mom was making a replacement, and forgetting all about Jeremy.

"Mom-" she got cut off by her mother's phone.

"I'm sorry sweety I got to take this," her mother grabbed her phone. "Miranda speaking." She said firmly, but then her voice changed into a soft voice, and Elena had no doubt who it was on the phone. It was _him._

_Great _Elena thought _she doesn't even have time for her own daughter. _

She texted Caroline: _Are you at The Grill? _ And went for her jacket and shoes in the hallway.

Caroline texted her back: _Yes and Bonnie's here too. _

XXXXX

When she walked into The Grill she saw Caroline and Bonnie sitting at a table with Matt, her boyfriend. She walked over to them. "Hi Matt," she said and smiled. "I'm sorry I didn't call, but I was really tired."

"That's okay, but" Matt said.

"But what?" Elena asked.

He leaned towards her and grabbed her face in his hands. "You owe me a kiss then," he smiled at her, and she smiled back. Then he kissed her softly, and she kissed him back. They sat down next to Caroline and Bonnie.

"It's unfair" Bonnie said.

"What is?" Caroline asked.

"I want a boyfriend too. One that is sweet and charming and handsome," she looked at Elena. "Can I have yours?"

Elena laughed at her. "I don't think so… and I'm not even going to share him with you."

"I'm glad," Matt said and smiled at Elena.

"Did you talk to your mom?" Caroline asked.

"Kind of" Caroline looked confused.

"About what?" Matt asked.

"My mom got a boyfriend," Elena said. She could see that he was going to comment on it, and she held up a finger. "Don't say anything."

"So what happened?" Bonnie asked.

"Well… when I got home I just went straight to my room, so I wouldn't have to talk to her, but this morning she talked to me. She told me that if I wasn't okay with it, then nothing would happen between them and…" Elena sighed.

"And what?" Bonnie asked.

"Then _he_ called and she forgot everything about _me_, but it sounds like a crush. She'll get over it." She faked a smile. "At least I hope so," she whispered, and Matt put his arm around her.

XXXXX

"Where have you been?" Miranda asked.

"I was at The Grill with Caroline, Bonnie and Matt," Elena answered.

"I wanted to talk to you."

"I know, but then your phone called and then Caroline texted me that she was at The Grill with Bonnie, and asked me when I came, and I didn't want to disturb your conversation," she didn't really lied she just added a few things to the truth.

"I talk to Guiseppe and we-"'

"Who?" Elena interrupted.

"The guy that I met. Anyway we thought that it would be a good idea if we all had dinner," her mother smiled.

"All?"

"Yeah, me, you Guiseppe and his two boys."

_WHAT? Are you kidding me now his kids, come on mom you are going to get over him, right?_

Elena left the living room and went straight to her room. She went over to her bed and found her diary under her madras.

_Dear Diary._

_I don't know how long I can keep pretending that I'm okay, when I'm not. I haven't even told Caroline how I feel. When I see my mom it's like she is happy. Too happy. She hasn't been this happy since Jeremy was still here. I've told Caroline, Bonnie and Matt that I thought it was just a phrase, but I don't think it is anymore. It's been a month since she told me about him for the first time. If it wasn't serious would she want me to meet him and his sons? I just want to scream that it's not okay what she is doing. It is not fair to Jeremy. She can't just move on and forgot all about him, and if she thinks that she can do that she is terribly wrong. I won't let her forget and move on. _

It knocked on her door. Her mom came in. "Are you okay?"

"Off course" she said and smiled. "When is the dinner?"

"Tomorrow."

**Thanks for reading and leave a review thanks. **


	3. Chapter 3

**So i just want to say thank you foor reading my story that really means a lot to me :) Well here's chapter 3 enjoy :D **

****Chapter 3

_Dear Diary._

_In a few minutes I have to get ready, and go to the Salvatore mansion. I found out that it was Guiseppe Salvatore she likes. I thought that I had hears it before, and it was first when I told Caroline that I occurred to me. It's Guiseppe Salvatore from the law firm Lockwood and Salvatore. He is like this really rich layer. It also occurred to me, that his sons probably are really spoiled and gets whatever they want. I really don't want to go tonight, I asked Caroline if she could get me out of it, but she is going on a double date with Tyler and Bonnie and Luca. I just hope I can survive this one night, and try to be polite, and that is going to be hard, when I'm this upset._

"Elena, are you ready?" her mom stepped into her room. "You aren't even dressed yet? We have to be there I half an hour."

"I know… it's just I'm not feeling to well, maybe I should just stay home," Elena asked and she lowered her voice and had her eyes half open, hoping her mom would think that she was actually sick.

Miranda walk toward her and laid her hand on Elena's forehead. "You're not warm," she said and looked at her daughter's face. "Get dressed. If you feel worse doing the night we'll go home. I promise."

Elena got up from her bed and walked towards her closet. She found a tank top and a cowboy high waist skirt. "Do you mind?" she looked at her mother.

"Sure," her mother said and went downstairs. She put on her close, and walked into the bathroom that she used to share with Jeremy, to put on some make-up and brush her teeth. When she was done she looked in to Jeremy's bedroom. Everything was as he left it. No one had touched it since. His clothes were still lying on the floor. Everything is untouched.

_It's my entire fault _she thought to herself. _All I had to do was say no._

…

"_Elena where's the car key?" Jeremy yelled into Elena's room._

"_You're not going to drive the car. You're 14. You're not old enough to drive and you don't have a driver's license."_

"_Then why do you drive? You're 15!"_

"_I'm about to get a license."_

"_Where is the key, Elena?" _

"_I'm not going to give it to you, Jer."_

"_Why not? I'm not going to be the one driving it!" _

"_Are you kidding me? You're going to let Vicki drive?"_

"_Is that a problem?"_

"_Yes! Doesn't she have her own car?"_

"_No and neither do you!"_

"_You're not getting the key." _

_Jeremy walked over to her. "Give me the key Elena!"_

"_Or what? What are you going to do, Jer?"_

"_How about I tell mom what you really did last weekend with Matt and _not _Caroline?"_

"_You wouldn't," Elena said and laughed nervously._

_Jeremy smiled. "You think?"_

_Elena walked downstairs and found the car key in one of the drawers in the kitchen. She held it forwood so Jeremy could reach it, and she took it back. "She is not driving if she is high. Do you get that?"_

"_Relax Elena!" _

"_No Jeremy I won't! If something happens to you, I will never forgive myself, and if she does something to the car, mom is going to kill you. If something happens to you I will kill _her_!" _

"_Elena I'm going to be okay, okay? It's just tonight. I promise."_

"_I hate you," she said and laughed, and gave her brother a punch on the shoulder. _

"_You love me," he said and hugged her. "I love you, too." He took the key. "I'll see you later." _

"_I'll see you." She smiled at him as he walked out the door._

…

"Elena, are you coming?" she heard her mom on the stairs. She whipped away the tears she had gotten from thinking about that evening. She ran out in the hallway.

"Hi!" she said in a high voice, a little to high for her expectation. "I'm ready." Elena smiled.

"Good," her mother smiled.

XXXXX

Elena and her mother stood in front of the front door to the Salvatore Mansion.

"I think I know what is going on," Miranda said.

"What?" Elena asked.

"You don't like the idea with me being happy with another guy."

"Eeeehhhhh mom…" Elena laughed a bit. "I you have dated a lot guys, before this one. It's not that you're dating someone that bothers me." Elena wanted to ring the bell, but her mother stepped in front of her.

"What?"

"Come on mom. It's not that he is just a guy, it's just that… you know… he is the _first _ guy that you're seeing since Jeremy."

"Elena," her mom said in a loud voice. "He isn't just a guy, okay? I like him and I thought you were you okay with this."

"How could you think that? Because you asked I _didn't _wait for an answer?" Elena said and stared cold at her mom. She went pass her and rang the bell. Her mother stepped aside of her.

"This is how you feel? You don't like?"

"I don't know. I mean it's not like I have met him so I can't judge him. But I bet his kids are just as rude as me, then I am definitely going to hate both of them."

"Elen-" her mother got cut off by the door opening.

"Hi," a man with brown hair, green eyes and a little older than Elena's mother.

Elena's mother stepped forward and gave him a small kiss on the lips. Miranda stepped aside. "This is my daughter."

"Sure. Elena I believe?" he asked.

"Yes," Elena said and smiled.

Guiseppe welcomed them in. As they walked in Miranda grabbed her daughter's arm. "We're not done with this."

When they came in to the living room, there stood a guy who looked like a younger version of himself. "This is my son, Stefan." Guiseppe said.

"Hi," Elena said and smiled. "I'm Elena."

"Nice to meet you, Elena," Stefan said.

"Let's take a seat in the dining room," Guiseppe said.

"I'm sorry, sir," Elena said. "I thought that you had two sons."

"Oh I do," Guiseppe said. "Unfortunately he is late. Could you call him, Stefan?"

"Sure father," Stefan said and left the room.

"Now Stefan is going to call Damon, and then dinner will be served in a few minutes," Guiseppe said.

"Alright," Miranda said.

After a few minutes Stefan came back. "Damon is on his way. He is just late. I don't know why, he didn't want to tell me."

"Okay then we'll just start eating, and then he'll just come," Guiseppe asked.

When they were in the middle of the dinner Guiseppe and Miranda were talking. "Can I ask something," Elena cut in.

"Sure," Guiseppe said.

"I was just wondering… this is a really beautiful house, so I was wondering how old it is?" Elena said.

"It's from around the beginning of the 18 hundreds," Guiseppe said. "Are you interested in history, Elena?"

"Yeah she does. It's her favorite subject in school," her mother said and smiled.

Elena looked coldly at her. "I believe that I can answer for myself, mother."

And if looks could kill Miranda would have killed her daughter.

"She was just being polite," Elena turned around and saw a guy with beautiful blue eyes. "Unlike you, Cut your mother slack young girl."

"Damon!" Guiseppe exclaimed. "Talk nicely to our guest especially when you are this late."

"I'm sorry father, I didn't mean to be rude," Damon said. He sat down on a chair next to Elena. He turned to Miranda. "I'm sorry that I'm late, miss Gilbert."

"That is okay, Damon. Don't worry about it," Miranda said.

After dinner Miranda turned to her daughter. "What are you doing?"

"Excuse me?"

"At the table. We are guests here. I don't care what your problems are with me, but just wait 'till we're home to be mad at me," Miranda said, and was about to walk away, when Elena grabbed her arm.

"Mom… I'm sorry. It was rude. I was rude. It's just you didn't even want me to answer to what I thought about it," Elena smiled.

"I'm sorry too, Elena," her mother said.

"Hi ladies. Hope I'm not interrupting," Guiseppe said.

"Not at all," Miranda said.

"Do you want me to show the house?" Guiseppe asked.

"Actually," Elena said. "Is it okay if I looked around for myself?"

"Off course, knock yourself out," Guiseppe said.

"Thank you," Elena said and tried to find the stairs in the big house. She walked upstairs, she walked pass one of the rooms, but went back something in there seemed interesting. She looked down the hall, to see if there was anyone there, and when she didn't see anyone she walked in to the room. She saw an old drawer. She opened the drawer and saw an album. She opened it and on the first page there was a picture of a beautiful lady, she didn't look very old. She had beautiful blue eyes just like the ones Damon had.

"What are you doing in here?" she heard a voice, and she turned around.

"Damon."

**Thanks for reading and please leave a review :)**


	4. Chapter 4

****Chapter 4

"What are you doing going through my stuff, Elena?" Damon said in a loud voice.

"I'm sorry I was just-"

"Just what, Elena?" he bored his eyes into hers.

She looked down. "I should go." She went out of his bedroom, but she didn't come far before he grabbed her arm.

"You know it's rude to leave in the middle of a conversation," he said.

"Let go of me," she said and looked down at the arm that was holding tight around hers.

He pushed her up against the wall. "Why?" he whispered in her ear.

She pushed him away. "What the hell?" she stepped away from him. "I'm not some L.A. who wants to get into the famous Guiseppe Salvatore's hot son's pants." He looked surprised at her. "Just because I live in a small town, it doesn't mean that I don't read the tabloids." She looked for a reaction in his eyes, but she didn't see anything. "Do you really think that you can be the son of one of the most famous lawyers and then sleep with a hundred women and that it doesn't get in the tabloids?"

"Again with the rudeness…" he stepped a little closer to her. "I don't think your mom would appreciate that tone," he smirked.

"What are you going to do? Tell on me? Because that would be low… even for you." She walked away leaving him alone in the hall.

XXXXX

_Three days later_

"Stefan just called he wanted to know if you could go with him. Know on his first day and everything," her mother smiled at her.

"Sure not a problem," Elena said.

"Good because I told him to be here at 7.45."

"Of course you did," Elena laughed. The doorbell rang and Elena looked at the clock. "I just have to get my bag and then I'll be here again, could you tell him."

Elena went upstairs, and her mother went to open the door. "Elena will be ready in a few minutes," Miranda said and smiled. "You can come in. Elena's kind of slow."

"I HEARD THAT!" Elena yelled from upstairs.

"Do you know what happen between Damon and Elena?" Stefan asked Miranda.

"No. What do you mean?" Miranda asked.

"I talked to Damon yesterday, and it seemed like they had had a fight or something," Stefan asked. "I could be mistaken. Well if there was something wrong she would talk to you right?"

"I don't know she hasn't really talked to me the last few days. Before we went to visit you, we had a fight but I figured everything was fine. I don't want to say anything to her, she might get mad. I just want to give her some space, and get used to the thought that there are some new people in our family."

Stefan smiled. He had met Miranda once and had loved her from the moment he had met her, and already she had called him family.

"Off course you are my family, Stefan," Miranda said as if she had heard his thoughts.

"Alright here I am," Elena said. "All ready to go."

"Okay," Stefan said. He turned to Miranda. "Thank you."

"I am not slow, normally. So whatever my mom told you, it's not true," Elena said, as they walked outside.

"I hope you don't mind that we drive in my car," Stefan said, and pointed at an old sport wagon.

"It's beautiful," Elena breathed she had never seen a car that pretty and extraordinary before. When they were driving in silence Elena decided that she just had to say something. "Aren't you afraid that something will happen to your car?"

"No not really. I mean if it gets broken my dad will just buy me a new one," Stefan smiled.

"Oh okay," Elena nodded.

"I'm kidding. I'm not _that_ spoiled, Elena." Stefan laughed as he looked curiously at her. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine."

"So you didn't have a fight with Damon about anything?"

"No! Did he say that?"

"No he didn't tell me anything."'

Stefan didn't comment on it. He didn't want to fight with as her mom had warned him about. When they arrived at the school, Elena told Stefan about the school, a little about some of the teachers, a few tips that would help in class. She also told him about some of the student, which was okay to be around, and who he should stay away from, like the ones that were on drugs. She wanted to tell him to stay away from the popular ones, because they weren't all that nice, but something said to her that she was one of them. People in the hallway had said good morning to her, smiled to her and asked if she had had an good vacation. She nodded and smiled and said thank you.

"I don't know if you are planning on going for tryout on the football team, but if you do, don't be late. Mr. Tanner can easily get mad." Stefan smiled. Then Elena saw Caroline coming towards them. "The blond girl coming this way is Caroline. She is my best friend. She can be a little to much sometimes, but you'll get used to it."

"Hi Elena!" Caroline said.

"Hi Caroline," Elena said and Caroline hugged her so  
>Elena couldn't breathe. "Caroline, you saw me yesterday. You don't have to hug this tight."<p>

"I know but all of the other students are doing it, and I can do it too," Caroline said. Stefan cleared his throat, and Caroline looked at him. "Who is this hottie, Elena?"

Elena looked down hoping that it wouldn't be to embarrassing for Stefan. Elena spoke nervously. "This is Stefan…" she said and nodded. "My stepbrother."

Caroline widened her eyes as she realized her mistake, but then she didn't care. "Okay," she said. "I'm Caroline."

"Nice to meet you Caroline." Caroline locked her eyes with Stefan's, and they smiled at each other.

Elena looked from Caroline to Stefan, and then from Stefan to Caroline. "Okay Caroline," Elena said loudly hoping to interrupt them.

She succeeded, and Stefan looked away and cleared his throat again. "We should probably get going," Elena said to Stefan.

"Where to?" Caroline asked.

"The headmaster's office," Elena answered.

"I think you should find Matt a well," Caroline said. "He's looking for you."

_Right,_ Elena thought. _Her boyfriend. She hadn't seen him in two days and she didn't even care. It was weird, because she had never been away from him more than a day without missing him. She was probably just too busy with her mom and all of that. (Damon)_

"Let's go," Elena said to Stefan and grabbed his arm. They got to the office. ""I'll just stay out here." Stefan nodded and went in.

"Elena!" she heard a voice call. She could easily hear who it was. Matt. _Not now_ she thought. She didn't know what had gotten in to her. Why was she feeling like this? Why didn't she want to be with Matt right now?

"Hi," she said and faked a smile.

He could see that something was wrong. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," she said.

Stefan came out looking on some papers. "Can you help me, Elena? I have no idea what this means," he said and pointed at the paper.

"I'll help you get to class until you know where everything is," she smiled.

"Thanks," Stefan said and smiled back.

Matt cleared his throat.

"Right…" Elena said. She turned to Matt and pointed at Stefan as she talked. "Matt this is Stefan, he's my new stepbrother." Then she turned to Stefan and pointed at Matt. "Stefan this is Matt… my boyfriend."

The bell rang. "I'll see you after school," Elena said to Matt, and walked away. "Let me see your schedule." He handed her his schedule. "You have English in the first class with Mr. Stevens. He's okay. He doesn't care if you do your homework, so most of the students like him."

In the lunch break Elena and Stefan sat at a table.

"It feels weird talking to you about this. But I came home from a vacation with two of my friend like five days ago, and I wasn't anxious to see him and be with him, I usually am. I don't know what is going on, but this morning I didn't even feel like talking to him." Stefan smiled at her. "What?"

"I think I know what's going on."

"You do? What is it?" she asked.

"I don't think that you are going to like the answer I'm coming with, so you can't get mad at me."

"I won't. I promise. Just tell me."

"It sounds like you're falling out of love with him. Do you understand?"

"No that can't be it." She shook her head.

"Okay. I have a way of finding out," he said and leaned towards her over the table. "Do you remember when you first started to go out with him?" she nodded. "Do you remember every time you looked at him; you got butterflies in your stomach?"

"How do you know?" she asked surprised.

"Because I'm smart," he smirked. "When you kissed him you felt a spark? A tingle?" he asked.

_I did feel something special, I'm not sure if it was a tingle. But a spark could do it, I guess, _she thought. "Yes," she said.

"Try to kiss him, and then you'll know," he said.

She wanted to ask him how he knew all of this, but got interrupted by Caroline that sat next to Stefan. Shortly after came Matt, Tyler and Bonnie. "How is your first day so far, Stefan?" Caroline asked.

"It's fine. People have been very kind to me," he replied.

Tyler was looking at Stefan like he some kind of an alien or something, and Elena laughed a little to herself. "This is Stefan. He is my new stepbrother," she told them.

"Nice to meet you," Tyler said and smiled.

"Tyler you're the captain of the football team aren't you? Because Stefan would like to try out for it, I was thinking that maybe you could help him with that or something like that," Elena asked.

"You don't know much about football do you?" Tyler asked her and gave her a cocky smile. "Sure man, I'm sure we can work something out," he said to Stefan.

Stefan nodded Matt's way as he looked at Elena. She knew what he wanted. He wanted her to try out theory. She shook her head. "Come on," he whispered in a very low voice so only Elena could hear him. She looked at Matt, who - as usually - pretended to be listening to Caroline babbling about something girly. "Fine," he said leaned back into his seat and looked in another direction.

Elena sighed. Then she tucked her arm around Matt's. "Hey what's up?" he asked.

"Not much. What's she talking about?" Elena asked him.

"I have no idea," he said and she giggled. She wondered if it was only Bonnie that listened to her. Matt leaned towards Elena. She knew that he wanted to kiss her, and he was waiting for her to make the last move. Just get a little closer so their lips would touch, a part of her didn't want to, because what if Stefan was right? Then what? She looked into his blue eyes, and then made her move. Their lips touched, and it felt good. Not great good. He had been right. She had fallen out of love with him. She sat back in her chair. She saw a smile on Stefan's face.

"Shut up," Elena said to him.

"Are you okay?" Matt asked her.

"I'm fine. I just have to get something in my locker. I'll see you after school?" she got up and waited for Matt to answer.

"Sure," he said and she walked away.

**Thanks for reading please please please leave a review :D**


	5. Chapter 5

Caroline walked in to the bathroom. "Elena, are you in here?" she asked.

She wiped away a few tears. "Yes." She had been sitting in there, crying. She knew that Stefan had been right, and it killed her, because she wanted to be in love with Matt, she did, but somehow she wasn't. She knew that she had to break up with him.

"Are you okay?" Caroline asked.

Elena opened the door smiling. "I'm fine."

"We planned on going to The Grill after school. Do you want to come?"

"Sure."

"By the way… Stefan's looking for you."

"Why?"

"Because h is new and you promised him to help him get around."

"How do you know what I told him?"

Caroline smiled. "He told me… but if you can't handle it I'll do it."

"No a can do it."

Elena left the bathroom and met Stefan, and let him to the last class of the day. "I'm sorry," Stefan said.

"About what?" She asked.

"About Matt. I didn't want to make you sad," he said.

"I'm not sad," she quickly answered.

"Oh yeah… then why are your eyes red?"

Elena stopped walking. She looked down and tried to dry her eyes more then she already had. "They are? Is it bad? Do you notice?" She looked up at him.

"I don't know… it's not that bad."

"Okay." They walked to their class in silence.

After school Elena found Caroline in the parking lot. "Are you driving with me, Matt or Stefan?" Caroline asked her.

"I should go with Stefan. He doesn't know the way so…" she said not trying to hide her sadness.

"What's wrong, sweety?" Caroline asked with a concerned look on her face.

"I tell you later. Okay?" Elena said. She had a few tears in her eyes.

"Is it about your mom?" Caroline asked trying to get her best friend to talk to her.

"No." Elena smiled. Caroline gave her friend a hug. "I tell you later, I promise," Elena whispered into her friend's ear. She walked towards Stefan's car.

They arrived at The Grill a few minutes after her friends. "Are you going to tell him?" Stefan asked.

"No" Elena said and shook her head.

"What? Why not?" he asked and looked at her.

"It's probably nothing. I'll get over it. I'll love him again soon. A lot has happened the last few days," she said, trying to sound convincing.

"You that's not why…" Stefan said.

Elena looked away, avoiding his gaze, feeling the tears forming in her eyes. She knew he was right. "I can't tell him. We've known each other for so long, and he loves me."

"So that's why you can't break up with him? Because _he_ loves you?" He looked her in the eyes. "That's not fair. It's not fair to you, and it's not fair to him either," he said.

"I know but-" She didn't know what to say. "It will break his heart."

"If you don't tell him, then your relationship will be fake, it'll be a lie." He could see the tears that had come in her eyes. "I'm sorry."

"It's fine. You're right. It is a lie." She shook her head. "I have to end it don't I?" she asked in a low voice.

"I'm afraid so," he said. "You should go in."

"You're not coming?"

"No. I'll just go home. Unless you need someone to drive you," he smiled at her.

"You know Caroline would want you in there."

"I know but… I'm not really in the mood. I should go home and check on Damon. When he is alone for too long, he often get's all these weird ideas with thing he shouldn't be doing."

"Okay." She said and smiled. When Stefan had mentioned Damon, her tears had disappeared, she didn't know why, maybe because of their 'fight' a few days ago. "I'll ask Caroline to drive me, it's not a problem."

When she walked into The Grill, she felt the tears coming again, because she saw Matt. She took a deep breath and decided she would just get it over with, today. She would do it today… before she left… before midnight.

"Isn't Stefan coming?" Tyler asked, when she approached the table.

"He had a thing with his brother," Elena said, and sat down next to Caroline. "Where's Matt?" She asked realizing that he wasn't sitting with Tyler and Caroline. "And Bonnie?"

"Matt had to work. Noah called in sick," Caroline said. "Bonnie… I don't really know where she is."

"She had to go home to her grandmother," Tyler said, and smiled at Caroline, and Caroline smiled back at him.

_Was there something going on between them, or were they always looking so intensely at each other?_ Elena thought. _ No. there was definitely going something on between them._

Around 7 pm Tyler and Caroline wanted to leave. "Elena, do you need a ride?" Caroline asked her.

"No, Stefan will pick me up," she lied. She needed time to talk to Matt, and she didn't want any pressure, she wanted to wait until Matt had the time, whenever that would be. She waited at their table until 9 pm.

"Are you still here?" Matt asked her smiling. "Let me just get my jacket and I'll take you home."

"No. Matt. Actually I need to talk to you," she said and followed him to the back.

"About what?" he asked. She got a few tears in her eyes; she took a deep breath to shake them off. "What's wrong?"

She laughed nervously. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't be the one crying. We have been friends _forever. _You are one of my oldest and best friends. I want you to know that-"

"Stop," Matt said. "Are you breaking up with me?"

"I'm sorry," she said and looked down avoiding his gaze.

"You're sorry?" he slammed her against the wall, and hit the wall as hard as he could next to her face. She had never been afraid of him, he had never given her a reason to be, because he was never violent and he never yelled at her.

"We can still be friends," she said in a fragile voice.

"FRIENDS," he yelled at her. He talked in a 'normal' voice again, he didn't yell. "I have been so patient with you and this is my reward?" He paused and took a deep breath. "You know what? I don't even care. Trust me I'm relieved. That I finally don't have to deal with you, and the thing you have with Jeremy. You want me to say it's your fault? Fine, it's your fault! I was getting sick of it! Of you..."

"You don't mean that."

"Oh yes I do," he took a few steps away from her. "And I could never be your friend." He paused. "Just leave, Elena. I don't want to have anything to do with you. Just leave, and stay out of my life."

When he left, Elena couldn't catch her breath. She couldn't breathe. The person who was one of her closest friends. The person, that had promised her he would always be there for her - always - had left her. The people in her life just left her. First Jeremy. Then her mom - she hadn't really left her, but it felt like that. And now Matt had left her. She started sobbing. She needed to get out. She needed to get home.

When she got outside she needed to get away from the center of the town, she knew too many people. People from the school, she couldn't break down here. She walked down the alley that went out to the road that went back to their house. There was about a mile back to her house, no one was around and she let herself cry. She took a little detour and pulled herself together before she returned to her home.

When she was standing in front of the front door, she found a small mirror she had in her bag. She looked descent and she walked inside. She heard laughter from the kitchen. Her mom was laughing and she wasn't alone, someone was laughing with her. Elena couldn't figure out who it was. When she walked into the kitchen she should've known.

"Damon," Elena said. He was standing with his back towards her, but she could easily see it was him.

He turned around. "Hi Elena," he had a smirk on his face. "How are you?"

"What are you doing here, Damon?" she asked cold.

"Damon just came over to talk to me," her mother said. She looked at her daughter and saw her red eyes. "Are you okay?"

"Elena avoided her mom's gaze. "I'm fine. I don't want to bother you. You obviously have company." She looked coldly at Damon, and walked to her room. She didn't want him in her house, but she needed to get used to the thought, because during the next couple of weeks, whenever she got home, he would be there. He would be in the kitchen or the living room, just talking and _connecting_ with _her _mother. He was _always_ there. He was there when she got home from The Grill, from Caroline, even if she came straight from school.

After she had ended it with Matt, he ignored her in the hall and in class. It was kind of good to get away from him. He hung out with Stefan, they were usually at The Grill or at Matt's place, but sometimes they were at the Salvatore Mansion, so Elena had a reason not to go there. She had started to like Stefan, he was nice to her. Not like Damon, who spoke over her head, like she wasn't there or he ignored her when she was there, maybe it was because she did the same thing to him. She didn't know what his problem was. It wasn't like she had come into his life and talked to his dad whenever she had the chance. She kept her distance, from that part of the family.

She was careful not to get near Matt. He was still mad at her, and if looks could kill, she would be dead.

One day she had been staying late at Caroline's house, She went home, and she locked up the front door slightly. She didn't want to wake up her mom. She walked quietly in the dark. When she got into her room, she collapsed on her bed and appreciated the fact that it was Friday, because she was too exhausted to get up early the next day.

She woke up around 9 am the next morning. She didn't know what had wakened her up; she was used to sleep at least 'till 11 am. She went to the bathroom to brush her teeth, she noticed that Jeremy's door was closed, which she found weird, because it was always open. She opened it and was clearly not prepared to see what was lying in Jeremy's bed. _He_ was lying there. In her dead brother's bed. Her mother better not had let him stay here.

She slammed the door, not carrying if it woke him up. "MOM!" she yelled as she ran downstairs.

"Keep your voice down," her mother said from the kitchen.

"Why? Afraid that I'll wake up Damon?" she said loud and cold.

Her mother was speechless. "Ele-"

"Look mom I get it okay? He looks like him, well a little bit, I guess." She looked at her mom. "He has almost the same hair color, and they're just as toll I guess, but he will never be Jeremy." She looked at her mom with pity eyes.

"It was late, and I didn't want him to drive home," she said. Now Elena was speechless. Miranda grabbed her purse, and went out in the hall.

"Where are you going," Elena asked.

"Edward called. I have to go to the office today," her mother smiled. "I'll be home as soon as I can."

"Who the hell is Edward?" Elena asked looking confused.

"He's the new editor for the magazine." She grabbed her coat and keys.

"What about Damon? Are you going to leave him here with me?" Elena asked.

"I'm sure you can be nice to him," her mother said in a serious tone. She was on her way out the door; she lifted her eyebrow and waited 'till Elena responded to what she just had said to her.

Elena sighed "You really think that I can be nice to him?" she asked her mom in disbelieve.

"Yes. I you want to you can." Her mom stared at her daughter waiting for her response.

Elena sighed. "Fine."

"Good. I'll see you later," her mother said and blew her a kiss. She walked out the door, and considered the mistake she was making by letting Elena being alone with Damon.

"You know I don't bite," Damon said and smirked when Elena jumped and turned around.

"I know that," she said cocky, and walked passed him into the kitchen, and he followed her.

She was facing Damon with a table in between them. She turned her back to him, and started making some coffee. After a long time with silence, Elena Damon started talking. "You know you should really-"

Elena cut him off. "What are you doing here?" She turned around facing him again.

"I spend the night here because your mother didn't want me to drive home last night," he said in a soft voice. He knew she was upset with her mom that was why she had been yelling at her. He wanted to try to get her to like him, or at least be nice to her mother.

"That's not what I meant," she shook her head. "What are you doing _here? _In my house? In my life? And what is the thing you have with my mom?"

He smirked at her. he looked like he was about to laugh at her. "You have everything, Elena."

"What?" She asked a little confused not knowing what he was babbling about.

"You don't know that you do, but you do. You have everything that I ever wanted." He looked her deeply into her eyes.

She shook her head. "I don't…"

"Your mom is so sweet, and you don't even care. She would do anything for you, and you don't even care…" he paused, waiting for her to say something, or at least lift an eyebrow or something.

"She wouldn't." Elena said.

"Yes. You want to know why she has been keeping her distance from you? Because she wanted you to get used to this, and you would talk to her eventually."

Elena didn't know what to say, because she hadn't seen this coming. She didn't have a cocky comment ready this time. Damon had done something that she thought would never had happened. He had made her speechless.

"She loves you, Elena. More than anything else in the world." Damon stepped towards her. "The night you guys were at our house, you were in my room. Do you remember that?"

She nodded.

"You saw a picture of a woman, right?" He asked.

"Yeah…" Elena said nervous about where he was going with this.

"That was my mother… she meant the world to my dad, and she died 6 months after I was born," he stopped talking.

Her eyes softened. "I'm sorry Damon. I didn't… I didn't know that," her eyes filled with tears. She had been so mean to him, and she had never asked anything about him, she hadn't even tried to get to know him. He had lost someone too.

"From the day she died my father has hated me," he looked down to the floor.

Elena shook her head. "I don't believe that."

"It's true. You see I have her eyes… and her hair color… I don't blame him." He shook his head. "Every time he looks at me he sees her. For the first time in my life I actually feel like there is an adult that wants to be there for me no matter what. Elena I wish that I had had the relationship you have with your mother with someone." He looked up staring into her eyes.

Their eyes were locked after some time all she could say was: "I'm sorry." She smiled at him. "And there really hasn't been anyone for you? What about Stefan's mother?"

"She only wanted him for the money, and when she got pregnant she saw it as an opportunity to get even more money from him, from that time on I was either with our nanny, or I was at my dad's office, where his secretary took care of us."

"Does Stefan feel this way too?"

"I don't think so. He is always trying to please father. Maybe he wants his approval or something. That's something a gave up on getting a long time ago." He smirked. Damon changed the subject. "So how are we on the coffee?"

"What?"

"You were going to make coffee." He smirked at her once again.

Elena didn't know why he did it, but it had some weird effect on her. an effect that made her look him in the eyes, and not being able to look away. Damon could clearly see what it did to her, and he was very amused by it, and his smirk turned into a teasing smile.

Elena snapped out of her trance. "Right."

She turned around to the coffee machine "She could still have offered you the guestroom," Elena said. She found to cups and poured coffee into them.

He came to stand right next to her. "No," he said. She looked curiously at him, and when gave him one of the cups, his hand slightly crossed hers and she felt a tingle. She turned to her own cup, and he was still standing right next to her. She could feel her heart beat a little faster. He leaned towards her. "Your guestroom is filled with paintings, and a lot of boxes," he said.

She walked out of the kitchen, up the stairs, to the end of the hall, to the guestroom. She opened the door. Her eyes widened as she saw what was in there. It was _filled _with pantings. "Oh my god," she whispered.

"What?" Damon asked.

She let out a gasp, not realizing that he had followed her.

"I…" she breathed. "I'm a terrible person!" She said as she remembered what her mom once had told her. Before Elena was born her mom had loved to paint, and her husband had kind of been the person to encourage her to following her dream of being an artist, but after he left she kind of had been packing it all away, because there was a lot of memories that included the painting and him. Miranda had once tolled Elena that sometimes when life was too hard, she would paint, that way she expressed her feeling in the painting. After Jeremy's death she had been painting a lot. It had worked for her she had to be strong for Elena. And now Elena realized that her mother was sad, because in these painting where no happiness, accept for a few of them. She walked into the room to look closer at them.

"No you're not," Damon said.

"Yes I am," she said and pointed at a painting. The "happiest painting she could find in the room. "This is the day she told me about Guiseppe… she was happy and…" she pointed at another painting, that looked not so delightful. "This is the first day we fought about him…" she took a deep breath trying to hold back the tears that were pressing.

He approached her. "You're not a bad person," he whispered. She closed her eyes as it seemed like the only thing that she could do right at this point. He leaned his body up against her. She could feel him breathing against her hair. She wanted to tell him to back off, but she couldn't, because the tingles were back, and there was something inside of her was telling her to go with it. To go with him.


	6. Chapter 6

**I'm sorry again for the late update :) **

Chapter 6

"Elena," he whispered softly into her ear.

"Mmh?" she said.

"I still don't think you are a bad person," he kept whispering to her.

She chuckled a bit, and stepped away from him.

"What's so funny?" he asked a little amused by her laughing at him.

She smiled at him. "You don't know what I've done. I've done some things in my life that I regret everyday…" she looked at him with limpid eyes. "It's my fault that Jeremy is dead, and I don't want my mom to be happy, or move on. It's like all I want to do is remind her of the most horrible thing that I've ever done."

"Elena… what happened on the night of his death, wasn't your fault," he said with pity in his eyes.

She smiled at him. She wanted to explain everything to him so that he would understand. Understand that she wasn't a good person, because she wasn't, at least she didn't think she was. "He blackmailed me." Damon looked confused. "He blackmailed me to giving him the key… The weekend before the accident Matt and I went up to his family's lakehouse, we were going to-" She choked not feeling very comfortable taking to Damon about this. "It was supposed to be our first time, well my first time." She waited for Damon to say something.

"Then what happened?" he asked.

She was surprised that he didn't respond to what she had just told him but continued. "Nothing really happened, because we never did it. We just had a nice weekend…" She smiled at the memory of Matt and his understanding for her not being ready to have sex with him. "Anyway," she said remembering what story she was telling. "I told my mother that I was spending the weekend with Caroline, that's my best friend. I don't know why I didn't want my mom to know that I went, I mean it's not like anything happened."

"Maybe you were afraid that she wouldn't trust you again," Damon said.

"Maybe…" She looked around in the room, thinking about how there had been something she wanted to ask him. "You said that your other died 6 months after you were born. I was just wondering who gave birth to Stefan."

"After my mother died, my father buried himself in his work, and after a few years he found a "replacement" if you can say that, and what he had with her was all fun and games-" he said, but Elena cut him off.

"Fun and games, you mean the kind of fun you had in L. A.?" she asked. She knew that his idea of "fun and games" was to drink and have sex with a bunch of random girls.

He chuckled." Yeah like that, I don't want to get into the details." He didn't want to tell about his father's sexual relationships.

"I would appreciate that," she said and laughed awkwardly.

"After a while she became pregnant, and she told my father that she wouldn't kill the baby, because it was wrong, and then she made him believe that she was in love with him… but a few weeks after she had given birth to Stefan, she left, and my father never heard from her again." He smiled. "From that time on, he completely buried himself in his work, in my only family became my father's secretary." Even though he smiled, Elena couldn't help but feel bad for him and his father.

"I'm sorry, Damon."

"Don't be." He shook his head.

"But-"

"Don't you hate it when people give you the sad eyes that are filled with pity, when you mention Jeremy?" She couldn't agree more, she hated it. When people said they were sorry, because they didn't know what else to say to her, that's what she hated the most.

She thought it was interesting. All the things that she had noticed, actually had meaning. Why _he _hated his father? It was because he hated his son. But what about Stefan? Why did he hate his little brother? She still didn't know. And she wouldn't find out today.

"Elena?" Elena heard her best friend downstairs.

"I should go," Elena said to Damon with a small smile on her lips.

"Of course," he smiled back at her. Elena walked past him.

She approached Caroline at the stairs. "You aren't even dressed yet!" Caroline said.

"Is that so?" Elena responded sarcastically. She walked further to her room to get dressed.

Caroline sat down on Elena's bed.

"So what are we doing today?" Elena asked.

"We are going to the mall in Richmond," Caroline said.

Elena surprising at her. "What? Why? I thought we were doing something special."

"I need to find someone for you," Caroline said smiling.

Elena laughed nervously. "What?"

"I need to find you someone, because in two weeks it's the Miss Mystic Falls pageant," Caroline said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Right," Elena said. "About that…" Elena didn't want to compete in the pageant, she had been thinking about it, and now that she had split up with Matt, she didn't want to do it, because he was her escort.

"No!" Caroline cut her off. "You _are_ competing."

Elena gave her a weak smile and shook her head lightly.

"We are a part of the founding families. We have too," Caroline said.

"I don't have an escort," Elena tried to convince her best friend.

"Which is why we are going to the mall," Caroline smiled.

Elena was confused. "Because we're going to the super secret store of escorts?" Elena asked ironically.

"No," Caroline said as if Elena was being the most ridiculous person on the planet. "We are just going shopping, and it wouldn't be the worst thing if we found a handsome guy, who would want to escort Elena Gilbert to the Miss Mystic Falls pageant," Caroline said playfully.

Elena chuckled. "I'm not competing," Elena said firmly.

"Elena-" Caroline tried.

"No! I'm not doing it, and I don't want to talk about it." Elena grabbed some clothes and went to her bathroom, and shut the door a little too hard for Caroline's liking. Caroline knew that she had upset her friend, but she wasn't going to let Elena say no to it just like that.

"What's with her?" A male voice asked behind Caroline.

Caroline gasped.

He chuckled. "Sorry. I didn't mean to scare you." He walked towards her. "I'm Damon."

"I know," Caroline said and smirked. "She talks about you."

"Really?" He asked surprised.

"Yeah." Caroline smiled. "And to answer your question, she is just being herself."

"What do you mean?" He asked.

"She never wants to do anything that has something to with Jeremy." Caroline sighed and shook her head.

Damon got eye contact with Caroline. "What?"

"She's afraid that if she does something _they_ used to do, then she is moving on." Caroline shook her head again.

"Isn't that kind of sad?" he asked.

"Not kind of…" Caroline chuckled. "It is sad. She is sad… like all the time, and it's hard not to be sad, when you're around her."

"I haven't noticed," Damon said.

"It's because you haven't seen her happy, and haven't been alone with her." Caroline smiled to herself. "Before the whole thing with Jeremy, she was the most cheerful person."

In the bathroom Elena had gotten her clothes on and was about to do her make-up. She didn't want to go to the mall with Caroline, because she knew that Caroline wouldn't let the Miss Mystic Falls thing go.

"Think Elena!" She whispered to herself. "I can't go with you to the mall today, Caroline, because…" she floated on the s. "My mom needs me. No. She knows that I'm fighting with her- but I could just say that we made up. No, that wouldn't work either, Damon would probably say that she is at work." Elena looked at herself in the mirror, it was okay, she had been prettier, but this was her as she had been looking for the past few weeks. It tore on her. Her mom, Damon, everything. "Think Elena… come on." She talked to the face in the mirror now. "You used to brag about being smart, and now you're speechless?" She shook her head. She was definitely going crazy. She took a deep breath and opened the door to her room. "Caroline I-" She was cut off by the sight of Damon. "Damon!"

He smirked at her sudden surprise. "Elena." He was still smirking, and he locked his eyes with her, so she couldn't look away from him, she couldn't look away from the beautiful blue eyes.

After what felt like hours, Caroline interrupted them. "Hello!"

Elena forced herself to look away over to her best friend. "What?" She asked in a soft voice.

"Are you ready?" Caroline asked.

She gave up. She couldn't come with an excuse, at least not one that Caroline would believe. "Sure," she said and smiled weakly.

Caroline was already on her way out of there.

Elena smiled at Damon. "I should go. I see ya."

Damon smiled back at her, and she disappeared down the stairs.

**Please leave a review :D**


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

They had been at the mall for a couple of hours. Elena thought it was a good distraction, and was glad that she went with her best friend, because she didn't have to deal with anyone or anything. She'd forgotten about her mom _and _her boyfriend, it felt weird calling him that, because when Elena said boyfriend, she pictured a boy on her own age. She didn't think about Jeremy either _or _Damon. She didn't like being around him, well not really, he made her feel all these weird feelings that she had never experienced before, and she kind of liked him. She was really confused when it came to him.

All of the sudden out of nowhere in the middle of their conversation Caroline stepped in front of her. "I can pretend that I'm not seeing it, but then again I can't which is why we're having this conversation…"

Elena had no idea what her friend was talking about, and maybe she was a little scared to know the answer. "What are you talking about, Care?"

"I know that you say you don't like Damon, but what happened this morning? It's like…" She paused. "I mean… okay I have no idea what I'm talking about right now…" Caroline said and shook her head.

"Just now because I thought it was like that all the time…" Elena teased her friend.

"I'm serious, Elena." Caroline put her most serious face on.

"So am I." Elena said sarcastically.

"No seriously, I mean one day you hate him, and the next day you can't look away from him, and you're all nice to him. I just… I don't understand that's all." Caroline shook her head.

Elena sighed and smiled. "You know, Caroline, I love you, I love that you care so much about me, and that you worry, and the reason you are saying this is because you don't want me to get hurt. You think that he is just going to screw me over like he's done with almost every girl in L.A. but the truth is that…" Elena laughed thinking about her answer. "I don't even know."

"I get it if you like him I mean he is like so gorgeously hot." Caroline shrugged. "I don't blame you."

"I don't know if I like him." Elena shook her head.

"You want know my opinion?"

"Not really."

"I think that you like him and the whole hating him thing was just you avoiding him, and you mom spending time with him, just made you avoid all the family stuff." Caroline smiled.

"Maybe you right. So you think that I just avoided him because that I like him and not hated him?" She asked trying to understand what Caroline had just said.

"Don't be so surprised, Elena, of course I'm right. I don't know if you noticed, but somehow during all of our conversations we ended up talking about him."

"You mean like now?" Elena smirked.

Caroline shook her head. "It's not the same."

Elena nodded. "Because this time you brought him up," Elena teased.

"No." Caroline shook her head. "This time it was intentionally, the other times it was instinctive."

Now that Elena thought about she could hear that her friend was right. She could deny it all she wanted to, but her best friend really was a winner when it came to successful relationships.

"Oh my god," Caroline shouted. She pointed towards one of the stores.

"What?" Elena asked.

"It's my dress," she said and went over to the window of the store.

Elena followed her. "What are you talking about? That's not your dress." Elena shook her head, and tried to figure out what her friend was talking about.

"Yes. That's _my_ dress," Caroline said again.

"Carol-"

"Do have to spell it out for you? It will be my dress, _once I buy it_." Caroline looked at the dress again. "That is the dress," she said as if she was in some kind of trance.

"You want to go in?" Elena asked. When Caroline didn't respond, Elena gave her a small push, and Caroline turned around. "Do you want to try it on?"

Caroline smiled. "Yeah…" they walked inside the store. It was a big store filled with beautiful party dresses.

When they came inside a woman came over to them. "Can I help you with anything?" she asked.

"Yes, we would like to try the green dress you have stored in the window," Elena said.

"Sure. Follow me," the woman said. They walked further into the store. There were all sorts of dresses. They were short, long, with and without strops, and it seemed like they had all the colors in the world, but still there wasn't one model with more than one color. If you wanted the yellow one, they didn't have it in all sorts of colors.

While Caroline was in the changing room, Elena looked around in the store, at all the beautiful dresses. "Can I help you?" the woman in the store asked her.

"No thank you," Elena said. "We'll let you know if we need any help." Elena tried to smile, but right now the woman was getting on her nerves, she was like one of those pushy saleswomen.

"Okay," she said and walked away. Elena sighed, she knew that Caroline was a bit slow to change her clothes, but this was really slow. Elena was about to tell her to hurry up, when Caroline stepped out of the changing room.

"Oh my god, Caroline." Elena was stunned. Speechless. She didn't know what to say.

"What?" She looked down her body. "Is it not pretty, or- No! It's me isn't it? It doesn't fit my stupid, ugly body, and-"

"No!" Elena said. "You're just so beautiful." Elena smiled.

"Really?" Caroline asked.

"Really." Elena nodded.

"Good," Caroline said and went back into the changing room. "Now we only need a dress for you."

"What? No. I don't need one." Elena looked around, looking for a decent looking dress.

"I'm sorry," someone poked Elena's back. She turned around to see a girl around her mother's age maybe. "Are you from Mystic Falls?"

"Yes?" Elena answered confused.

"Are you looking for dresses for the Miss Mystic Falls pageant?"

Elena was still confused. "Ehm… yeah. How did you-"

The woman smiled at Elena. "You look just like your mother, Elena."

_My mother? She knows my mother? _

"I'm sure you will win just like she did," the woman said and smiled and then walked away.

Caroline walked over to Elena. "You okay?"

Elena sighed. "Yeah… I think I am.." Elena smiled. "So… can you help me find a dress?"

Caroline's face lighted up. "Really!"

"Yeah," Elena smiled. "I think I should compete."

"YAY!" Caroline jumped enthusiastically.

Caroline paid for the dress, and they shopped a little more, and then they drove home.

"So…" Caroline said when they were about halfway home. "What happened today?"

Elena clenched her teeth, and pretended that she didn't know what Caroline was talking about. "What do you mean?"

Caroline scoffed. "You know what I. Damon!"

"Oh… Ehm… That was nothing." She looked out the window. Caroline opened her mouth to say something, and Elena knew she had to stop it. "Can we not talk about this right now? Please!" Elena smiled.

"Eeeeehhhhhh… okay," Caroline said, and the rest of the drive home, they sat in silence.

XXXXX

"Thanks for the ride, Caroline," Elena said and got out of the car. She popped her head inside. "I'm sorry I snapped at you earlier."

Caroline smiled. "It's fine, Elena. I can't blame you. You know, next week it's been two years."

Elena smacked the car door. _What was she talking about? Two years? _

She walked inside. "Mom! Are you home," she yelled and threw her bag on the floor, and went in to the kitchen, to the fridge, to get a bottle of water. She looked at the calendar that hung on the fridge door. _Two years. _She scoffed. _Off course. Jeremy. Next Thursday was it two years since the accident._

"Better…" She heard a familiar male voice say. She turned around to see him standing right there in the door frame, and more confident than ever.

"Damon…"


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

He stood there in front of her with a big smirk on his lips. He walked towards her, when he was only standing a few inches from her, she could feel her heart beat a little faster. She looked down at her feet. He laid his hands on her neck, which made her look up, and directly in to his eyes. She couldn't looked away, she felt mesmerized.

"Are you okay?" he looked worried at her.

She caught her breath. "What?" she breathed.

"Your pulse is racing," he said and smiled at her, he looked down her body, and up again so their eyes met. There was something about him, something weird, but she didn't know what it was, but whenever she was with him she didn't feel like herself. She didn't feel upset about her mother, she didn't feel sad about her brother. She felt happy, breathtaken. Whenever he touched her skin she could feel the tickling underneath, and the butterflies she got in her stomach. He pecked her cheek gently, and she smiled in return.

"Elena," she heard her mom saying in the hallway. "Are you home?"

"I'm right here, mom," Elena said, and Damon took a few steps away from her.

Miranda walked into the kitchen. "Ah… Damon! What are you doing here?" Miranda asked.

"I was just…" Damon chocked. He didn't know what to say, normally he was good at coming up with excuses, but whenever he was around Elena, he couldn't think straight.

Miranda looked at Damon expecting an answer. "I called him!" Miranda turned her attention to her daughter.

"You called him?" She asked in disbelieve.

"Yeah," Elena said and gave her most believable smile. "I called him."

"Why?" her mother asked.

Elena avoided her mother's gaze. _Why? WHY ELENA! Come on. Answer! Answer!_

"She wanted to ask me something," Damon said taking over the conversation. And Miranda turned her gaze to look at him.

"What did she want to ask?" Miranda asked and smiled at them both.

"Ehm…" Elena said. She looked over at Damon for help.

"She needed an escort for the Miss Mystic Falls pageant," Damon said smiling. "And I as the nice gentleman I am sadi yes when she asked me if I wanted to escort her." _What! He was going as her escort, and off course had he to say to her mother that she __**had**__ asked him._ He winked at her.

"Oh that's nice. So you _are _competing?" her mother asked.

"Yes I talked to Caroline today, and she got me convinced," Elena said and smiled stiffly as she looked at Damon. And he stood there with a big smirk on his face, which off course he was going to regret as soon as she got her fingers on him.

Miranda walked over to the sink, and did some dishes. "So… Your father is coming home tomorrow, so I was planning on making dinner." Miranda turned around and smiled. Damon looked nervously at her, wondering where she was going with this. "I figured we all could eat together."

"All of us?" Damon said in surprise. "Actually I was-"

"He would love to come," Elena winked at him. "Have dinner with his brother _and _his father." She couldn't help but laugh inside.

"Great!" Miranda said.

Damon smirked at Elena. "I would love to come. I mean it would be great to spend an evening with you and the family." He never removed his gaze from her. She looked away from him, and then smiled at her mother.

"Great. Then I'll see you both at 8 o'clock tomorrow then." Miranda smiled.

Elena left the kitchen, and went to her room. She closed her door, and then she closed the door to the bathroom. Then she sat on her bed and grabbed her diary and a pen.

_Dear diary…_

_I don't know what I'm doing _

_Why am I feeling this way_

_Why is he acting that way he is just so_

The she stopped. She didn't know what to write. She laid the diary down on her bed table, and lay down and the bed. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes.

She didn't sleep, but she needed a break from all of it. From life.

It knocked on the door. "Who is it?" It could either be Damon or her mother. The door opened, and her mother walked in. "Mom? You okay?" Elena sat up in the bed.

"Yeah…" she answered. She sat next to Elena on the bed. "Is this okay?"

"What do mean?" Elena asked.

"Oh you know with the Salvatore's?"

"No, they're great." Elena smiled.

"Okay," her mother said smiling, and was on her way out of the room, and then turned around. "Just remember I'm here for you if you need to talk."

_Seriously mom? Seriously! You are starting to sound like Caroline. I'm fine! _

"Right," Elena said and gave a little to fake of a smile, and looked away from her mother when she gave her daughter a weird look.

XXXXX

Damon drove into the driveway of the mansion. It didn't look like anyone was home. It was only his car in the driveway, and there was no light inside the mansion.

He went to his room to get some clean clothes. He had been staying at the Gilbert house the past couple of weeks.

"Hello Damon," a voice said behind him.

_Stefan._ His jaw tensed. He went on finding some clothes, while he ignored him.

"What are you doing here, Damon?" Stefan asked.

"I was going to pick up some clothes, but now I don't think it matters. I'd rather walk around in dirty clothes than talk to you." He started to walk out of there, but Stefan followed him.

"I meant what are you doing _here _in Mystic Falls? You hate dad… and me. You have nothing to do here."

"That's what you think," Damon said with a smirk.

"You have no right to be here."

"Don't you tell me what I can and can't do."

Stefan grabbed Damons arm.

Damon sighed and looked down at Stefan's hand. "Let go of me, Stefan!"

"Talk to me Damon."

"I have nothing to say to you." Damon broke loose of Stefan's grip.

"You are going to have to talk to me sooner or later."

"No I don't." He shook his head. "I don't owe you anything. Not after what you did."

"I said I was sorry. What more do you need me to do?"

"Nothing. There's nothing you can do. Done is done, and you can't change the past." Damon shrugged. Stefan didn't know what to reply, so he just watched his brother walk out.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

"Do you think both of them will come?" Miranda asked.

"Yes," Guiseppe said and smiled. "I know Stefan will come, because that's Stefan. Damon will show, and we're lucky if he can stand to be in the same room as Stefan for more than 5 minutes, because that's Damon."

Miranda grabbed Guiseppe around the waist. "I guess you're right."

"I always am," Guiseppe said smiling, and then he kissed her.

"Okay I'm here. Please stop!" Elena said loudly with a forced smile.

Her mother laughed, and walked over to her. "Don't you look nice?" Elena was wearing a black simple dress, and her hair was up in a knot.

"Seriously?" Elena was not convinced.

"Yes!" her mother said.

A couple of minutes later the doorbell rang.

"Dinner's served in a few minutes. Do you know if your brother will be joining us tonight?" Guiseppe asked Stefan.

"Honestly? No, I talked him earlier, so I'm not sure," Stefan said.

"You what? I told you yesterday how important this was!" Guiseppe hissed at his son.

Miranda laid her hands on Guiseppe's chest. "Easy dear, I'm sure he'll be here."

"Where's the bathroom, Miranda?" Stefan asked.

"Upstairs. Down the hall," Miranda said smiling.

Stefan went upstairs, and Guiseppe and Miranda started kissing, like a couple of teenagers who was in love for the first time. Guiseppe started kissing her neck.

_God, are you kidding?_

After what felt like a million years the doorbell rang again. "I'll get that!" Elena said and ran out in the hallway. She opened the door. "Thank God." Elena said and stepped outside.

Damon stood only a few steps from her with a smirk on his face. "Did I miss something?"

"Just your dad filling up my mom… in kitchen," Elena said.

"Gross."

"Tell me about it." Elena smiled. "Come in."

Damon was right behind her. When they came in to the kitchen, Stefan had returned.

"Good you're all here," Miranda said and smiled. "Let's eat."

Elena could feel Damon's breathe on her neck, and chills went down her back.

"Damon if you sit next to your brother then…" there was an awkward silence after Miranda had spoken.

"Uuuhhh… mom, I don't think-" Elena said, and then she looked from Stefan to Damon.

"Right of course," Miranda said shaking her head. "If you sit there, dear." Miranda said looking at Guiseppe, and pointed to the chair at the end of the table.

_Dear…_ Elena was in shock, her mother was moving on faster than her. Elena wanted to move on too, and be happy, like everyone told her to, but something was stopping her.

"And Stefan, if you sit next to your father," Miranda said, "and Elena if you sit next to Guiseppe, and Damon if you sit next to Elena."

When the food was on the table, they where all talking, and Miranda was doing a great job as hostess, and most of all she made sure the guests were comfortable. Guiseppe was now telling them about how he became a lawyer, and Elena started to see why Damon didn't like Stefan, he was one hell of a kiss ass.

"I mean if my father hadn't pushed as hard as he did, I'd probably be a garbage man now," said Guiseppe, and continued his story about how Stefan and Damon should be thankful to him. "That's why I want my boys to get a really good education, and they might not it now, but when they grow up and have become great businessmen like myself, they will be as greatful to me as I am to my father."

"Grateful?" Damon said and huffed.

"I am sorry?" Guiseppe said.

"If you are so _grateful_ to your father then why do you avoid his call whenever he calls, or cancel anything that is family related when you find out that he'll be there?" Damon asked.

"I am sure that it isn't on purpose he cancels or there's come an important meeting up," said Stefan.

"I am sure _father_ can answer for himself, Stefan." Damon snapped at his brother.

"DAMON SALVATORE IF YOU THINK-" Guiseppe yelled but was interrupted.

"Look!" Miranda said. "I am sure, no harm was intended when the question was asked, now let's finish our meal, and change the subject." Miranda smiled, and she looked at Damon begging him to let it go.

Elena wanted this dinner to be over very soon, because the tension in the room had just grown significantly, and so that she could tell her mother it was too much, the look on her face, it was… pathetic.

Damon nodded, and Miranda smiled, and they continued their conversation. Elena nudged Damon. "Seriously?" She said in a low voice, so that the three "adults" could keep up their conversation.

"What?" he said shaking his head.

"You're just going to let it go?" She asked.

"What else can I do?"

"Yell back!"

"I will, when we get home. Decides I'm used to it," he smiled.

Miranda laughed. "I know, that is what I keep telling Elena. I mean I can't count on one hand how many times I've told her that homework comes before boyfriends." Then they all laughed. "It's not that Matt isn't a nice guy, trust me he is. Right Elena?" Elena had blocked them out and was concentrating on Damon.

"Sorry?" She said.

"He knows what he wants in life, not many teens know that. He has a job down at the Grill." Miranda smiled. "We could invite him over, and you could meet him. You would love him! Don't you think so Elena?"

"What? No, I don't think he wants to," she said smiling and shaking her head. She hoped her mother would let it go, but Elena could see in her mother's eyes she wouldn't drop it. "Isn't it hot in here?"

"I don't-" Damon was interrupted by the look Elena gave him, that told him to agree with her. "You know actually it _is _a little hot in here."

Elena got up, and so did Damon out of politeness, she left the room and got out the kitchen door. When she got outside, she took a deep breath and let the cold air run through her, and then she sank into a chair.

"Are you okay?" Damon asked and walked outside, and sat down in the chair next to her.

Elena sighed. "I don't get it." She shook her head. "It's like she's a different person when she is with him."

"It's okay, Elena," he said.

"No. It's not," her voice broke.

He tried to comfort her, and he brushed her arm. She leaned forward; and buried her face in her hands.

Then she started to laugh. Damon found it a little weird and awkward. "Elena?"

"I'm sorry," Elena giggled. "I'm just…" She sighed. "Why did you move here?"

Damon snorted. "My mother grew up here," he said and smiled. "She was born here, and… she lived here her entire life, so I figured that I would find out a few things about her, you know as a bonus." He was smiling.

"Bonus? What do you mean?" Elena was confused.

"Well the real reason that I'm here is because of my father," he said and looked down at his feet. Elena waited for him to continue, but he kept silenced.

"Why?" She said and thought about a reason for Damon to be here. First she thought it was to maybe support his father but… "Why did you move here? You hate your father more than anything in the world, and the thing you hate more than your father is Stefan. So why are you here?"

He lifted her head, and looked her in the eyes. "If I tell you can't get mad at me, and you can't judge me."

"Okay?" She said carefully.

"Promise me."

She hesitated.

"Elena? Promise me you will not get mad, or hate me," he said.

"Okay, I won't judge you, I won't hate you." She smiled.

"For as long as I can remember my father has hated me." He was going to tell the story about his relationship to his father. "He blames me for my mother's death. She was pregnant with me when she found out, she still wanted to keep me, and off course my dad was against it, and she died just a few months after I was born, and my dad blames me. When I got the message about my dad being happy with this _amazing_ woman that he had met, I thought: Why should I care? But then I figured that I could destroy him, and I knew that a chance like that would never come up again, so I came to Mystic Falls. I had the perfect plan, all I had to do was gain Miranda's trust," Damon said. Elena looked down at her feet, she was shocked, she felt used, and she could feel the tears pressing."But then I got to know her," he continued, he put his hand to her chin and lifted it up, so that she could look him in the eyes. "And I met her beautiful daughter."

Elena smiled. "But…"

"I called it off, because if I had to break their relationship, it meant that I had to break my connection to you," he said.

Elena nodded. She got up from her chair and took a few steps away from him, and took a deep breath.

"Elena…" He began.

"Stop," she said in a low voice. "Just stop talking," she said a little louder, and there was quiet for a moment. She could feel Damon approach her, and then she felt his hand on her lower back, and then she turned around to face him. "Why?" She asked shrugging. "Because he hated you, you have to hate him."

"It's more then that," he said.

"What?" She said with helpless eyes.

He let his arm slide down her side. "I grew up in an office. My dad didn't want me, it was obvious, so his secretary took care of me, and when he got Stefan he was so into his work that he barely noticed any of us, but still when he got home, he had time to talk to Stefan, but not me. I don't even recall him ever speaking to. We only fight. That's what we do, and give each other snarky comments."

"I'm sorry," she said.

"It's fine. I'd rather be angry, than desperate for his approval," he said and smiled. Elena knew he was talking about Stefan. Elena looked into Damon eyes, he was telling the truth, he was being honest, it wasn't a game, and Elena saw a glimpse of happiness in them.

"Dessert will be in a minute," said Miranda, and Elena stepped away from Damon, and looked the other way, and she tried not to look embarrassed. She didn't know why she was burning up inside and feeling all warm, they had just been talking. Was she starting to develop feelings for him?

"Sure we'll be in in a minute," Damon said with a charming smile on his lips.

"And Elena maybe I should call Matt for you, you know he can't say no to me," Miranda said smiling. Elena smiled back, but it disappeared, as soon as her mother had left them alone.

"I got to say." She looked at Damon, who was talking. "I thought that you and your mom was close."

"What makes you think that we aren't?" Elena asked.

"You just lied to her," he said and pointed to where Miranda had disappeared.

"Excuse me?" Elena was taken aback.

"You haven't told that you broke up with your boyfriend, Matt is it?" She nodded. "I would say that you feel like you can't talk to your mother anymore, first I thought that it happened after your mother started dating my father, but I was way before that."

"No. That is not true." Elena was shaking her head. "I have a great relationship with my mother."

"And I'm guessing that you told your mother a lie about Jeremy's death," Damon said and approached Elena.

She stepped away from him. "No! You're wrong, I have told her what she needed to know."

"Elena," he said and reached out for her arm, but she avoided him.

"Damon, stop it! You don't know anything!" She raised her voice. "My relationship with my mother-"

"Is not what it used to be."

"What?"

"When you brother died, your relationship with your mother died, too." Damon grabbed Elena's hand. "Talk to her."

"I can't," she whispered. She felt tears in her eyes.

"Are you coming?" A voice said coming from where Miranda had disappeared.

Elena turned away, and wiped away her tears.

"We'll be right there, Stefan, just give us a minute," Damon said, Stefan went back inside. Damon went to face Elena, but she walked pass him.

When she came inside she sat down, and Damon was right behind her. "You okay?" her mother asked and she smiled and nodded, and her mother smiled back. The rest of the evening went smoothly; Elena laughed at her moms jokes, and pretended she was fine.

Later they all went outside, Miranda said goodbye to all three of them, and said that it would probably be best if Stefan drove, because Guiseppe had had a few drinks, and Damon was driving his own car.

Elena walked over to Damon car, and he approached her. "About earlier, Elena-"

"It's fine," she said. "I should tell her, and I will." Damon looked surprised. "If…" She continued. He lifted his eyebrow. "You tell me what happened with you and your brother." He was shocked. He had never seen that coming.

"See you around," he said and got into his car. He drove out of the driveway, and waved to Miranda and then drove off.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

She would give him time to think about what she had said, so she didn't call until Tuesday afternoon.

_Hi, it's Damon, I can't come to the phone, but if you leave a message, and I'll call you back._

"Damon. Hi," she chuckled. She hated leaving messages, she never knew what to say. "Call me."

When she'd hung up the phone her mother came in. She had a paper bag with her, Elenas guess was that she had been to the grocery. "Hi honey," she said.

"Hi," Elena replied.

While Miranda filled the fridge with the thing that she had bought, Damon's words kept spinning in Elenas head: "_When your brother died, your relationship with your mother died, too.""It's not what it used to be."_

"Elena?" She looked at her mom.

"What?" She asked.

"Are you listening?" Her mother looked at her with a lifted eyebrow.

_Tell her._

"Sorry. There's just a lot going on right now."

"Do you want to talk about it?" Her mother asked concerned.

Elena shook her head. "Just school."

"I was asking if you can be home alone tomorrow night," her mother said.

"Sure."

"You can have a few friends over if you would like," her mother smiled.

_Tell her._

"Okay." She smiled back, and her mom left the kitchen.

_Tell her._

"No!" Elena said.

"Did you say something?" Her mother yelled from the living room.

"No!" She said and walked into the living room to see her mother looking at a picture of herself, Jeremy and her mother.

Elena looked at her mom, and the voice in her head kept saying: _She doesn't know the truth, because YOU lied. _

Elena went to stand next to her mother. "Actually…" Elena said. Her mother looked at her daughter, but Elena stared at the photo. "We need to talk." Elena stepped away from her mother, she looked down at the floor. "I lied to you…" She took a deep breathe, she found it harder to breathe, and she felt like she had to throw up - maybe pass out. She needed to sit down. "I…" She held a long pause, and breathed again. "…Broke up with Matt."

_What!? Is that all you got, wuss? COWARD! _The voice in her head yelled at her.

"That's okay, Elena. When?" Her mother asked.

"Long time ago… well a few weeks," Elena smiled at her mother, but she still felt sick. I'll tell her tomorrow, she thought to herself, and she felt a little better.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Her mother asked.

Elena shook her head. "No." And she walked upstairs.

If Miranda knew her daughter as well as she thought she did, that was not what she wanted to tell her.

XXXXX

The next day in math class, she was thinking about how she was going to tell her. She felt sick again. She thought about asking Damon for help, but since she hadn't heard from him since that night she'd upset him, she figured he wouldn't respond if she called him or texted him.

When the bell rang, it was lunch break, and she remembered what her mother had said to her the day before: She had a date with Guiseppe, and she immediately felt better - again.

When she got to the cafeteria, she saw Tyler, Caroline and Stefan sitting at a table, and she sat down next to Caroline. "Hi," Caroline said, and turned against her friend. "Are you okay?" Caroline always saw right through Elena, it _was_ her job as the best friend, but sometimes Elena found it enjoying.

"I'm fine," Elena said, maybe a little too rude, she looked at Tyler and Stefan who both looked her, and when her gaze met theirs, they immediately looked down. Caroline knew what it meant. It meant she was upset, but she wasn't ready to talk about the problem.

Caroline decided to change the subject. "By the way I can't drive you home," Caroline said, and waited for Elena to start yelling at her for breaking their deal.

"Okay," Elena simply said.

Okay, something was defiantly wrong, Caroline thought.

"I'll drive you," Stefan said, and Elena nodded, and she started eating her apple, she wasn't really hungry, but if she didn't get any sugar, she would fall asleep during History, and the apple would give her the energy she needed.

Elena was waiting by Stefan's car after school, but before that Elena had spent the past fifteen minutes trying to insure Caroline that she was fine, and she had agreed that she would call her when she was ready to talk about it. Elena was thinking about why she was acting this way. Was it because of her mother, or was because of Damon? She wasn't sure. Then Stefan came.

When they were halfway to her house, she had to ask the question. "How's Damon?" Stefan chuckled. "What?" She asked confused. "Why are you laughing?"

"Damon told me you would ask," he said.

Off course he did, she thought, because he knows you better than you know yourself, but you aren't really yourself today, so it's okay.

"Did he say anything else?" She asked.

"He said to tell you he was fine, and it's really nothing you should worry your pretty little head with," he said and shrugged.

He called me pretty, she thought happily.

_Pull yourself together. He called your head pretty, so it doesn't count. _

"Is he?" She asked, and looked at Stefan. "Fine I mean?"

"Look, Elena, I know you two had a fight?" He said, while he kept his eyes on the road. Damon had told Stefan? Stefan saw the confusion on her face. "He didn't need to tell me. You two have spent a lot of time with each other lately, and then suddenly he asked me - the brother he hates - to give you this kind of message." He smiled at her. She didn't know what to reply to that. He decided to answer the question she had asked. "He's Damon. He's dealing. First he'll be mad at you, but he'll forgive you."

"Like he did with you?" She asked sadly. Damon still hated Stefan for whatever he had done. Would he ever forgive her?

The smile on Stefan's face disappeared in a glimpse of an eye.

"Sorry?" She said.

"You're right, but…" He didn't know how to end the sentence, so he just asked something else: "Can I ask what you fought about?"

"We really didn't fight," she said. "I told him that I would do something, if he told me something."

"Something?" Stefan asked.

"Why he hates you," she explained.

His face changed from confusion to understanding, he could understand that Damon maybe not wanting to talk about it, because it was ridicules that he didn't want to forgive him. "I don't think he really hates me."

"He doesn't?" Elena found that hard to believe. She was 100 percent sure he hated his little brother, but she wanted to hear what Stefan had to say.

"I can tell you, why Damon got so upset all those years ago," Stefan said.

"No that's okay." Elena would rather hear it from Damon, and she felt like if Stefan told her, she would be betraying him.

"It was back in L.A." Stefan said, and Elena knew that Damon was right, Stefan did what he wanted, and she also concluded that he didn't understand the word no. "Damon was 21, and he had been seeing this girl, and they were pretty serious, well they were engaged."

Wauw. Damon engaged? Elena thought. Who would think that he had ever been in a serious relationship?

Stefan continued: "Her and I got a little close, and we were together almost every day, but Damon didn't like that, he said that if I didn't back of he would never speak to me again, and when I went to tell her what he had said to me, Damon saw us, and he called off the engagement and he never spoke to either of us."

Elena was stunned, maybe that was why he never had a girlfriend, because he got jealous too easily.

Stefan drove up to her house. "Do you need a ride tomorrow?" He asked.

Elena thought about while she got out of the car. "Why not? It's not like there's anyone else to drive me," she said as if Damon could hear her.

It was almost three o'clock, and her mother wasn't home yet. She wanted to call Damon. She didn't know who to talk to. Just after she made the decision to call him, her mother walked in the door. "Hi sweety," her mother yelled through the house and ran upstairs, she was late for her date with Guiseppe. Elena moved to the living room, with a novel they had gotten today in English. She found it hard to focus on reading with everything she had going on in her head. 30 minutes later her mother came down the stairs.

"How do I look?" She asked.

Elena looked her mother up and down. She was wearing a black dress - it was knee high, and she was wearing black heels, and she had light make-up on.

"Beautifull," she said.

"Thank you," her mother replied. She kissed her daughter on the cheek. "Don't wait up for me, I don't know when I'm going to be home." Just before she went out the door Elena heard the words: "I love you." And the door shut.

Elena put her book down. She couldn't read. She found out it was hard to concentrate when you were feeling guilty.

Elena took a shower, because she always felt so good afterwards. When she showered, she could let her thoughts run freely, but when she was in the shower, her heart started to ache, and she got a lump in her throat, and the next thing she knew she was crying and gasping for air. When she got out of the shower she felt a little better, maybe she just needed to cry it out? Maybe not. When she was dressed, she felt the lump again.

She grabbed her phone and dialed Damon's number, and pressed 'call' before she had time to regret it. She got his voicemail. "Damon," she sighed. "I don't know if you know but Stefan drove me home today, and I don't know if you care, but…" She sighed again. "Call me." She hung up, and hoped that he would just call her.

She went to bed early. She fell asleep fast.

_Elena was standing on a cliff. Her mother is standing next to her. It's windy, and suddenly her mother loses her balance and she pushes Elena over the edge. She is holding on to the edge._

"_Mom, help me," she is saying, but her mother can't hear her. She keeps saying it louder and louder, but her mother hears nothing. After a little while Miranda looks down to see her daughter holding on to the edge, but she does nothing to help her she just stares at her. "Help."_

_But her mother just shakes her head slowly, Elena can see someone in the background, her mother turns to him. She can't see who it is until he smirks at her. Damon. Then little after little the ground that she is holding on to is disappearing, and she falls. She falls…_

Elena woke up gasping for air. She looked outside. It was dark. She looked at her watch: 2:54. She was afraid to fall asleep again. She went down to the kitchen and poured herself a glass of milk. When she was little her mother had always given her a glass, and she always felt better afterwards.

She didn't feel better, she tried but she couldn't. She spent the rest of the night half awake and half asleep.

XXXXX

The next day Elena couldn't help, but to think about she and Stefan had talked about. It was good to have a distraction, she thought. She could still feel the sickness in her stomach, but wasn't that bad when she didn't think about it.

Caroline passed a note to her. "We're going down to the Falls tomorrow night. Are you in?" It said.

Elena wrote: "I don't think my mom will let me go." She passed the note back to Caroline.

A little while later the note came back. "Didn't you say that your mom is always out with G on Fridays?"

"Fine I'll see what I can do," she replied. Caroline turned around and gave Elena a hugh smile and a thumbs up. Elena didn't really want to go, but she could go and stay for a few hours and then go home, she thought. But off course what Elena planned almost never happened.

"Can I sleep over at Caroline's tonight?" Elena asked her mother just before she was about to leave.

"Tonight?" Her mother replied.

"It's Friday," Elena said. "We were planning on having a movie marathon." Elena had early considered calling Caroline and telling her she wasn't feeling too well, but they hadn't really been doing anything fun lately, and Elena figured it would be fun to hang out with her friend and the others, and maybe there would be alcohol - off course there would be. Tyler would get his big brother Mason to buy it for him, and Caroline and Tyler had something going on, even if they were denying it, and Caroline wouldn't drink if Elena didn't.

"I don't see why not," her mother said while she put a lipgloss in her purse. "But-" She looked at Elena. "You're not going down to the Falls, I've heard there's a party there tonight."

"Off course not, mom," Elena said and tried to smile.

_You just keep lying don't you? Liar! Liar! Liar!_

Miranda looked at her watch. "I have to go," she said and blew her daughter a kiss.

Elena was standing in a towel in front of her dresser, she had no idea what she was going to wear. She pulled out dress, it was blue and strapless, it showed off her curves, it was short, maybe a little short for her mother's liking, but many guys would approve of, she thought. It was going to be cold for her legs, but what the hell, she thought. If she drank enough alcohol she wouldn't feel it.

When Caroline arrived, Elena grabbed a pair of boots, not high heels though otherwise she wouldn't be able to walk - the party _was_ in the forest.

When they arrived the party was in full swing. There were a lot of people from school, and a bunch of other kids that Elena had never seen before.

Caroline wanted to find Tyler, and Elena just followed her. When they found him, he kissed Caroline. He was already pretty drunk. He handed Caroline two plastic cups, and she handed one of them to Elena. "The party's been going on for a while, and you should have something to drink, so you guys aren't the only ones sober here," Tyler said.

"What's wrong with being sober?" Elena asked him as he poured some tequila into her glass.

He smiled at her. "What's _fun _about being sober?" He asked her.

Caroline raised her glass at Elena. "Cheers!" she said, and they both emptied their cups.

"I'll just have this one," Elena said. The tequila didn't exactly help the nausea she gelt, that she had felt for the past few weeks, but the guilt seemed to disappear a little bit.

"Come on, Elena, It's a party," Caroline said. She had taken the bottle from Tyler and poured her and Elena another glass, and Elena didn't refuse.

Later Elena felt amazing. She felt free of the guilt. She knew that she was drunk but she didn't really care until…

Elena felt sick. She needed air, only she was outside and it didn't help, she ran away from some people, when she felt it coming up again.

"Are you okay?" Someone asked behind her.


	11. Chapter 11

**I am so sorry for the long update, but I just got back to school and I have sooo much homework at the time. **

Chapter 11

"Tyler what happened?" Caroline asked, as he came walking with Elena in his arms.

"Some guy was all over her, and she is barely conscious," he said. Elena opened her eyes for a moment and then closed them again, and made a little noise.

"What are we going to do?" Caroline asked. "Can you carry her home?"

Tyler went to put her down next to a tree, and almost fell over on the way down. "Maybe not?" Caroline said in a voice only she could hear.

XXXXX

Damon was walking back and forth in the parlor of the mansion. What was he doing? It was Friday and he had no plans, how did that happen? Had he really become one of those guys that would stay at home on a Friday night and watch TV? Even Stefan had plans, he was at some party.

Since he'd gotten to Mystic Falls his Fridays nights had become so boring, when he lived in L. A. he used to go out with his best friend Alaric, they always went to a new bar every Friday, but that wouldn't be easy in Mystic Falls, since the only bar there was, was the Grill.

Well, since he had nothing better to do, he might as well go to the Grill, and get a few drinks. He grabbed his keys and his leather jacket. When he was halfway there, his phone rang. He knew he wasn't supposed to talk on the phone while driving, but he always answered his phone except when it was Stefan or his dad, but they had their own ringtones, that way he knew when not to answer.

He answered his phone: "Hello?"

"Damon? Thank god you picked up," the sound of a shrilled voice.

Damon knew he had heard the voice before he just didn't know where, or who it belonged to. "Who is this?" he asked.

"Caroline."

Elena's Barbie doll. "Look, I'm sure you have all kind of problems, but I can't help you. Okay?" He almost hung up, but the Caroline said:

"It's Elena."

She had hit his soft spot. Even though he hadn't talk to her for about a week, but he _had_ to help her if she was in trouble. "Where are you?"

When he arrived, there were teens all over the play - drunken teens (the worst kind). He saw Caroline and drove over to her, and parked right next to her. He got out of the car. "Where is she?" he asked her.

Caroline pointed into the direction where Tyler had put Elena. She felt like she had to say something, but before she got to, Damon was already on his way over to Elena.

He knelt down beside her. She wasn't conscious; he put some of her hair behind her ear, and looked at her for a moment.

He lifted her up, and walked towards his car. He laid her down on the seats in the back of his car. He probably wouldn't get in an accident, at least that's what he hoped for.

When he parked the car outside of the mansion, he could see that there wasn't any light on inside which meant that no one was home - thank god!

He walked into his own room, with her in his arms; he put her on the bed, and covered her with a blanket after he'd taken of her shoes. He kissed her on the forehead, and then he shut the drapes in the room. He went into parlor, he poured himself a glass of scotch, he slurped it down in one zip, he refilled the glass, and sat down on the couch and stared into the fire.

Why was she so amazing? Why couldn't he stay away from her? Why was she so perfect… for him?

XXXXX

The next morning Elena woke up with a massive hangover, she could feel it before she even opened her eyes, and she thought: _Kill me now. Just kill me_! She'd never felt this nauseous. She moved to lie on the side, and took a couple of deep breaths, which made her feel a little better. She closed her eyes again and it didn't take long for her to fall asleep again.

Damon had been up for a couple of hours. He was standing in the doorway to his room. He was watching Elena's sleeping form, she looked cute, sweet, adorable, and beautiful and every other positive word there was.

He wondered if he should wake her, or just let her sleep. He had to tell her that her mother had called her a thousand times, but he knew what it was like to have a hangover, so he decided to just let her sleep, but when he walked toward the bathroom, she started moving and saying sounds. He sat down on the chair he'd put next to the bed during the night, to make sure was okay, he'd practically slept in the chair.

She opened her eyes for two second, but the she closed them. She had seen Damon sitting next to her. _What was he doing here?_ She thought. She hadn't realized were she was, yet. She didn't want to deal with anyone when she was hung over, but he was the one person she didn't want to deal with right now, because if he was here, that meant that he wanted to talk to her.

She turned around, so that she had her back against him, and then she asked: "What are you doing here, Damon?"

"I live here," he replied.

She opened her eyes, and turned to face him again, and then she realized that this wasn't her room. She tried to remember how she had gotten here. "How did I get here?"

"Caroline called me last night, and then I picked you up," he replied.

"But…"

Like he could read her mind he said: "You don't remember because you were passed out," he explained.

"Oh," she said, when she remembered why she had been drinking in the first place. Her face expression was screaming guilt.

"Elena you can't keep doing this. Tell her! She isn't going to kill you," Damon said, because he could read her like a book, which was something she was starting find really ignoring.

"You don't know that!" She said.

Damon got up, and she followed him with her eyes. "Do you want anything?" He asked her.

She shook her head.

"Water it is then," he said.

"Damon!" She exclaimed.

"Elena!" He said and raised an eyebrow. "You are dehydrated, don't you know what alcohol does to you?" He asked as a rhetorical question. He walked towards the door to the hall. "By the way, your mother called," he said, and threw her phone onto the bed, and before she could say anything, was he gone.

She could feel a little bit of fear of what her mother was going to say to her. She took a deep breath and dialed her mother's sell number. Usually when her mother had been out with Guiseppe, there always ended up in a hotel room - Elena didn't want to know why or what they had been doing.

Damon was in the kitchen. He poured a glass of water for Elena, but then he thought he'd bring her something else. He'd been hung-over so many times, and one of his good friends almost always gave him some drink for it, and it always helped. He didn't know what was in it, so he decided to call him.

"Saltzman," a voice said at the other end.

"Hey, man!" Damon replied.

"Damon! Hi! How are you?" Alaric asked clearly glad to hear from his friend.

"I'm good!" Damon said. "I was wondering if you have that recipe for hangovers that you used to make for you and me."

"Have you been drinking without me?" He asked and gasped sarcastically.

"Off course I have. You know I can't go this long without drinking, but it's not for me," Damon answered.

"You drink without me, and you have a new drinking partner?" Alaric stated.

"You will _always_ be my drinking partner, nothing is going to change that!" Damon said in a boring tone. "And I wasn't out drinking with her."

"Uuuuhhhh…" Alaric sang. "Girlfriend?"

"She's 17," Damon stated.

Their conversation went on for about 10 minutes. Damon got the recipe, and he realized how much he missed spending time with his best friend.

He made the drink for Elena. He took both glasses, and brought them to his room.

"It took you 20 minutes to pour a glass of water!" She looked sceptical at him.

He ignored her and walked over to her bedside, and handed her the drink, but she didn't take it. "What is that?" She asked in a disgusted voice.

"What is with the change of attitude?" He asked, and put the glasses on the table next to the bed.

"I was ready to call my mother, give her some lame excuse for not calling her, and giving her a weird story about why I wasn't at Caroline's and how I wasn't at the party last night." She tilted her head and looked at him, and lifted her eyebrows.

"Oh yeah that's right. I talked to you mother by the way," he said.

"Really!?" She said harshly.

He sat down next to her on the bed. He brushed her cheek lightly. She closed her eyes, and enjoyed the touch of him. She had to catch her breath for moment.

He grabbed the drink from the table. "Drink this and get some sleep, when you wake up you'll feel better."

She took the glass. "What's in it?" She asked.

"You don't want to know," he said and smiled.

She looked helpless. She closed her eyes and drank the whole thing. "That's disgusting!" She said.

He smiled. "Get some rest."

She leaned forward, so her head wouldn't hit the bed when she lay down, she could feel the heat coming from him, she was just about to give in to her desire, but then he got up. He turned off the light and left the room. She was lying in his bed, shocked. She had never experienced anything like it in her life, not even with Matt. Now she was lying there, in his bed, with the covers that he used every night. It smelled so good, well they smelled like him.

**I don't know if the flashback from the night should be in the story, what do you guys think? Let me know.**


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

It was three in the afternoon, and Elena had been sleeping the entire day. Damon poured a glass of bourbon and took a sip. He went to his room to wake Elena, but when he got there, his bed was empty. A few seconds later she came out from his bathroom. She was wearing the t-shirt he'd put on her during the night, her long legs were bare, and her hair was a little messy, and it just made her look hot.

"How are you feeling?" He asked.

"Better," she said and smiled.

"So the disgusting liquid was worth it?" He asked teasing.

"Yes," she admitted and looked down.

"Come on," he said and threw his head in direction of the hall. "You need to get something to eat."

She _was_ hungry so she didn't object, she just followed him.

XXXXX

He had some pizza left over, that she was now eating. He sat opposite her at the table, and watched her eat. Normally she felt uncomfortable when people watched her eat, but she was just _so_ hungry.

"Elena?" He said.

She didn't look up at him, because she knew what he was going to say. Because he always said the same thing: _Talk to your mom!_

_I get it, okay?_

He tilted his head down to make eye contact with her. Against her will she looked in to his beautiful ocean blue eyes. "I know," she said.

"And i know it's hard for you," he said. "But your guilt is eating you alive."

She leaned back and exhaled. She shook her head. He was right and she knew that. She got up to get some water.

He got up as well. She was standing at the sink, and he was standing right behind her.

"What if..." Elena trailed off.

He took her by the shoulders and turned her around. She looked him in the eyes.

"She will always love you," he said as if he'd heard what she'd been thinking.

"She could hate me," Elena said coldly. "If she finds out that I killed her only son."

"She won't," he assured her. "Decides if she does and says that she never wants to see you again then you'll have me." He smiled at her. She smiled back.

He leaned towards her. For a moment she thought he was going to kiss her, not that she would've minded, but he hugged her. She put her arms around his neck. This felt good. It was their first hug, but it felt like something they had done a million times before. They stood like that for a few minutes. Elena could stand like this forever, she could just sleep right there in his arms, she felt safe with him.

He smelled her hair, he took in her scent. He hadn't known if the hug was too much for her, but she looked like someone who needed one. He rarely hugged people. He didn't like to hug; he only hugged those he trusted. He'd trusted his ex-girlfriend. She was actually the last person he'd hugged. He trusted Elena. This was a good hug, not like those silly awkward one. No this was warm and he enjoyed it, and when she put her arms around him, he knew that she liked it too.

To be honest he would rather have kissed her, but she probably just saw him as a "big brother", and if she didn't it would just confuse her. Her feelings were confusing, the whole thing with her mom and all.

She pulled away from their hug. "Thank you," she said.

He smiled at her. "Here," he said and held his car keys up in front of her.

"Wha-" She was confused to what he meant.

"Go home. Talk to your mother. The longer you wait the worse you'll feel." He smiled at her again. "You can do this," he assured her.

She took a deep breath. "I know," she said and grabbed the keys from his hand.

XXXXX

Elena sat in front of her own house in Damon's car. She wanted to tell her mother the whole truth, but then again she didn't. What if she was going to her? The longer you wait the worse it gets. If she had told her mother what really happened that night then she wouldn't be sitting here feeling like shit, but she hadn't, and you can't change the past, she thought to herself, but then again if she could she wouldn't change it so that she had told her mother sooner, no she would wish for her brother to be alive.

She grabbed the door knob and pushed the door open. She started walking towards the house. She had this whole speech in her head, it had been there for a while. She had all these ideas to how she could start the conversation, she just hadn't ever used them, she had been close to many times, but then she had changed her mind.

She walked slowly and yet she walked fast, she felt like she was walking towards her death or something like that. Her heart was racing, she wanted to back into the car and just drive back to Damon. Tell him that she couldn't do this, and then she would grab him and hold onto him and never let go, and he would also hold onto her and they would never let go of each other, but she couldn't. She sort of wanted to do this, she wanted to proof that she could do this. She wanted to make him proud.

She walked inside.

"Hello?" She heard her mother saying from the kitchen.

"It's me, mom," she said. She walked into the kitchen, and saw that her mother was alone. She had no reason not to do this.

"Are you okay?" Her mother asked.

Elena took a deep breath. "We need to talk, mom."


	13. Chapter 13

**Hi guys, I'm soooo sorry for the late update. Now that it's holiday soon I will try update sooner :) And thank you so much for reading 3**

Chapter 13

"What's wrong, sweetheart?" Elena's mother asked her.

"I need to talk to you… about Jeremy."

Miranda looked questioningly at her daughter.

"Do you remember the night that he died?"

Miranda closed her eyes and felt a sharp pain in her heart at the thought of her dead son. She tried to smile at her daughter.

"I lied to you," Elena began. "I thought you would blame me for his death because-"she choked. She shook her head as she said, "it was my fault."

Miranda came to hug her daughter. "It's okay, Elena." Miranda calmed Elena down. "I will always love you. No matter what."

XXXXX

Elena was driving in Damon's car back to the Mansion. She had told her mother that she gave Jeremy the key. She'd originally said that he'd found it himself. She hadn't told her mother why, but she really need a reason? Something are better unsaid (Jeremy had threatened to tell their mom that Elena spend the weekend in the family lakehouse with Matt and not Caroline). Elena had concluded that it was better her mother didn't know.

She felt like she could do anything right now. She felt amazing! She was so grateful to Damon, he was an amazing person. He had made her do this. He truly was a great friend. She was sure he loved her otherwise he wouldn't have done that. Would he? But what kind of love? Sister-love? Best friend-love? She knew for sure now she loved him. She chuckled a bit. Had she finally admitted it? Her true feeling for him? Yeah she had.

XXXXX

He stood in front of the fire in parlor. What had he been thinking giving her his keys to his beloved car? Was he that captivated by her? That he would just give up his baby? He had never let anyone drive it, except from Alaric, his best friend.

"Damon" she breathed. He looked at her. She had a little smile on her face. He couldn't tell it was because it had gone well with her mother, or if it was because it had gone awful and Elena still had him as a friend. She ran over to him and hugged him tightly. He held his arms around her. He had her hair in his face and he breathed in her scent.

"What happened?" He asked after a while.

She took a step back. She smiled brightly. "Thank you!"

He took a step towards her. He put his hands on a waist and he leaned in and gave her a kiss on the cheek. "You're welcome," he said in her ear.

She closed her eyes at the sound of his voice. He leaned back but she grabbed his arms just as he was about to let go of her. He stopped and looked her directly in the eyes. He took the hand that she wasn't holding and put it behind her head and pulled her into a kiss.

**A bit short I know but figured you'd rather want this instead of nothing? Thanks for reading and please leave a review :)**


	14. Chapter 14

**Hi guys, I'm sorry for not updating sooner. There has just been happening a lot of things in my life, one of them being having writers block (not fun! I'll tell you that), anyways, I'll try to update sooner, now that it is the summer holiday :-)**

Chapter 14

She was a bit taken aback by the kiss. Not that she did not want it to happen, it was exactly what she wanted to happen. After a few moments, she finally realized what was happening, and she kiss him back, and she put her arms around his neck and pulled him closer.

It was a soft nice kiss. No. This was not a fine kiss, it was good, like the best she had ever had. He was a good kisser. He knew what he was doing, and he should be. After all, he has had his share of kisses over the years. It felt really good. Not just the kiss, but also the situation, and the fact that it was Damon she was kissing. She felt secure in some way. Usually when she kissed a guy she felt a bit awkward and mostly just wanted it to end, but this felt good, and she never wanted it to stop. However, it did and he pulled back. He held his hands on her waist and looked her in the eyes, he looked as though he wanted to say something, but then the doorbell rang.

"I'll get that," he said and let his hand brush over her belly slowly as he walked pass her.

When he had left the room, she breathed out in a laugh. She felt like the luckiest girl in the world right now, and if not the luckiest then the happiest. Nothing could destroy her happiness now.

When Damon came back into the room, he had someone with him. Elena had never seen him before in her life though.

"Hi," he said.

"Hi," she replied and smiled.

"You must be Elena," the stranger said and reached to greet her and shake her hand.

She reached in and shook. "That's me," she said brightly with a smile.

The stranger smiled. "Damon has told me a lot about you."

"Good things I hope," she said and smiled at Damon, who looked at little embarrassed. Elena had never seen Damon like this before. He always seemed confident and never like this. This made Elena smile.

"Oh yes," he said and smirked at Damon, which Elena did not see.

"Well, you know who I am, and I still have no idea who you are," she said, first looking at the stranger, and then turned her gaze to Damon.

"Oh. Right," Damon said. "This is Alaric"

"Oh," she said and smiled. "The best friend from L.A., right?" She said questioningly towards Damon, and he nodded.

"Well, I should get home," Elena said, when the awkward tension became too much.

"Sure," Damon said and smiled at her.

"Nice to meet you Alaric," she said and smiled. Then she walk out the front door. She took a deep relieving breath of fresh air and appreciated that she had escaped the awkward tension. Then she took one step and took a look at Damon's car, which was parked in the driveway, and she realized that she had borrowed his car, which meant she could not come home.

Just as she considered her options, the door opened behind her and she turned around to see Damon. He closed the door behind him. "Here," he said before she could say anything and handed her his keys.

She smiled. "Thanks."

"I'll just pick it up later." He seemed a bit weird, Elena thought. Just off in some way. He most certainly did not seem like himself.

She reached for the keys, but just before she got a hold of them, Damon grabbed her arm and pulled her into his embrace. He held her by the waist and then he pushed her up against the wall. Their bodies were intertwined and their lips only inches apart. Then he smirked, and she smiled, because, although she would never admit to him, she had actually missed that smirk.

"What?" He asked and looked her in the eyes in that special way that made her feel like the only girl in the world.

In addition, it made her smile even more. "Nothing," she said and wrapped her arms around his neck and leaned in and kissed him.

They kissed for a while and then Damon pulled back. "I'll see you later," he said and kissed her quickly and then handed her the keys. She smiled back at him as he walked in.

When Damon closed the door, he was smiling like crazy. He could not believe that this was actually happening. She was actually his now. However, to his infortune Alaric was standing right in front of him with his arms crossed looking all judgy.

"What?" Damon asked and shrugged, then walked past him.

"Didn't say anything," Alaric said and followed Damon into the living room.

Damon offered Alaric a glass of his finest scotch, and off course did he accept. After a little while Alaric spoke. "So," he said and looked a Damon. "She is the reason you won't come home." Alaric took another sip of his drink.

"Off course she isn't," Damon said.

"But she is. You said you would be here only for a few weeks, and it has been months now," Alaric said as a matter of factly and raised his eyebrows.

"There is just a few things that I need to take care of first." Damon took another sip.

"She's underage, Damon!" Alaric almost yelled. "Look, Damon, I know that you love girls and all of that, but I don't think it's a good idea to break the law."

"It's not like that, Alaric," Damon explained. "She's special."

"Aren't they all?" Alaric asked ironically.

"You don't understand, I can leave her behind," Damon said and emptied his glass and poured another one.

"If I didn't know you any better I would say that you were in love," Alaric laughed and took another sip of his glass.

"Well, then it's good that you do know me," Damon said smirking. He took a sip of his knew glass of scotch while he thought of Alaric's words. The thing about Elena was that she was different from all the other girls that he had been with. She seemed innocent. There was more to her than just met the eye. She was not as superficial as the other girls nor as stupid, which he for once liked. He could actually have a normal conversation without being worried that she had no idea what he was talking about. But then the thing with Damon when it came to Elena was that he had never felt this way before. It was like this need to protect her, but it had to be him. No one else. Just him. He wanted to protect her from the bad things here in life, which was shy he could not leave. He could not leave her behind with a bad thing that had come into her life. Which was the worst of them all. His father.

**Thanks for reading. Please leave a review :)**


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

As Elena drove into the driveway of her house. She was smiling all over her face as she left the car, but the smile totally disappeared when she saw who was waiting for her at the house. She walked over the grass and over the guy waiting for her.

"Stefan," she said.

"Elena." He stood with his arms crossed. She walked past him. When she reached the front door, Stefan spoke. "So," he walked toward her. "Damon let you borrow his car?" He crosses his arms. "That's weird."

She turns to face him. "Why is that?"

He shifted his position. "Because he is Damon, and he loves that car, and you have to be pretty special for him to lent it to you."

"Okay?" Elena said and turned to open the door.

"All I'm saying," Stefan walked towards the door and approached Elena. "Is that you got to be _special_."

Then the door opened. "There you are!" Guiseppe said and smiled. "Wow," he said and looked at Damon's car. "He lent you his car? Mmh..." he said and walked inside, and Elena followed and Stefan followed Elena.

When they came in Elena went to put her jacket in the closet, and Stefan went into the kitchen to Miranda. "Guess you're pretty special." Then Guiseppe also disappeared into the kitchen as well.

_They know._

Elena went to her room. She changed her clothes.

_They know. Oh my god. What am I going to do?_

"Aren't you coming down?" A voice sounded from the door.

"Mom." Elena walked over and hugged her.

Miranda chuckled a bit. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Elena pulled back. "I'm fine. I'll be down in a second." Elena smiled.

Miranda kissed Elena on the cheek. "Sure, honey." Then Miranda disappeared down the hall.

It took Elena a few moments to gather herself. _It will be fine. They don't know, and they won't say anything. Not in front of my mom, they care about her too much._

She took a deep breath and went down the hall to the stairs. She walked down, and then the front door opened, and when she looked into those delicious blue eyes, all her worries disappeared.

"Damon," she breathed and smiled. He smiled back at her with a sincere smile, for once.

She walked down to the last step, so that she was on eyelevel with him. He walks over to her at the steps. She has a kind of worry in her eyes, he can tell. "What's wrong?" He asked softly and caressed her arm, and let his hand stay on her arm.

She looked towards the kitchen for a moment to check for any of the others. "They know," she answered in a low voice.

Damon chuckled a bit. He also looked over at the kitchen door and leaned over to Elena. "No," he said in a low voice. "If my father knew, he wouldn't be in the kitchen right now, he would be all over me. You don't need to worry." He smiled and walked into the kitchen, and Elena followed a minute after.

XXXXX

Stefan kept looking over at Damon through the first part of dinner and at Elena through the second part, but there wasn't anything to see, maybe he _was _imagining it. Maybe there is nothing going on. Instead, he participated in the conversation they were having at the table.

Elena was a little active in the conversation. She couldn't really focus on anything because she kept thinking of the things that Stefan and Guiseppe said about Damon's car. _They have to know_, she kept thinking. She must have looked worried, because suddenly she felt Damon's hand in hers under the table. She looked up at him in surprise and he gave her a small smile and then continued the conversation.

"Well," Guiseppe said and got up. "This was delicious." He kissed Miranda on the cheek and she smiled.

"Thank you, honey," Miranda said, Elena looked away at Damon instead. She smiled at him and he smiled back.

They all helped each other clearing the table. "I'm going to go," Stefan said when hey where done. "I'm going to Tyler's place. A couple of other guys from school are also coming." He took his jacket and opened the door. "Maybe I'll be home later." Then the door closed.

Miranda and Guiseppe was in the kitchen, and Elena and Damon were in the living room. "I need my keys, Elena. I need something from the car." He reached his hand out.

She smiled. "They're in my jacket."

Elena walked into the kitchen to see her mother standing alone. "Mom."

"Hey, Elena," her mother replied. "I'm going to go to the boarding house with Guiseppe." She turned to hug Elena. "I'll see you tomorrow." She smiled.

"Okay," Elena simply said.

Then Miranda left and Elena was left in the kitchen alone. She stood for a few minutes until Damon came back to interrupt her thoughts. "What are you thinking about?"

"Nothing," she replied.

He approached her. "Elena," he said and took her hands in his. "Don't worry. Please." She looked at him with doubt written all over her face. "It doesn't suit you." He smirked at her.

She laughed. Then he kissed her, and she kissed him back. "Right now," he said. Then he kissed her on the neck. "We enjoy the moment."

"But-" she tried, but was interrupted by a kiss.

"Ssshh…" he said.

She sighed. "Fine." She smiled and wrapped her arms around his neck and started to kiss him back. The stood like that for a few moments, suddenly she could feel his hands all over her body. He started to place kisses down her neck, and then she felt him lift her up, and she wrapped her legs around him. He placed her on the kitchen table and kept kissing her.

"Damon," she breathed.

"What, honey?" He leaned back to look at her.

_Honey. He called me honey. _She smiled at the word.

Then he chuckled a bit at her. "What?"

"Can we…" she took a deep breath. "Take it slow?"

"Sure," he said and kissed her again. Then he leaned back again. "Why did you smile like that before?"

She smiled again, at the thought of it: _Honey._ "You called me honey," she said and pulled him into a kiss.

When she pulled back again to look at him, he said: "Well, you are my honey."


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

When Elena woke up the next. A smile appeared on her face, because someone was lying with his arm around her. And it was a special someone. _Damon_.

"Morning," Damon whispered into her ears.

She smiled and turned to face him. "Morning."

"Did you sleep well," he asked and removed a hair from her face.

"Yes," she said and smiled.

"Good," he said and kissed her softly. She kissed him back and put her hand on his neck. Then he took the opportunity of positioning his body on top of hers.

"Damon…"

"I know," he said against her mouth. "We're just kissing." Then he kissed her again. "Nothing more." One more kiss, one more, and one more…

Then the doorbell rang and Elena felt a panic rise in her. "Just ignore that," Damon said and kept kissing her. Then she ignored it. But then it rang again. "Ignore it."

"No." Elena sat up in the bed. "It could be my mom." She got up from the bed. "Or your dad."

In a minute, she was at the door. However, it wasn't her mom or Guiseppe. "Surprise!" And it was. Then she felt this person pull her into a hug.

"Aunt Jenna." Elena hugged her back. "Great to see you."

Then Damon appeared on the stairs. Jenna's eyes went to him right away. "You must be Damon." She went to give her hand to him. "Miranda has told me about you."

Jenna walked into the house. "So," Elena started and followed her aunt into the kitchen. "How long are you staying?"

"I'm not sure yet," Jenna replied. "That depends on how my niece is doing." Jenna smiled at Elena. "Coffee?" Jenna reached the coffee machine to make some coffee.

"Coffee would be great," Damon said and entered the kitchen. He has changed into his normal close, and he I wearing his usual smirk.

"Great," Jenna replied and then turned to face Elena. "So, how _are_ you doing?"

"I'm fine," Elena said and smiled at her aunt.

Jenna glanced at Damon for a moment. "Yeah, I can see that." Elena opened her mouth to say something, the same did Damon. "Don't worry," Jenna interrupted both of them. "Your secret is safe with me." Jenna gave them both a reassuring smile. "But if you guys want to keep this a secret, then you really shouldn't be so obvious." She turned around to make three cup of coffee, and she handed one to each of them.

"What do you mean?" Elena asked and took a sip of her cup. "Nothing happened." She looked over at Damon, who didn't say anything; he just took the cup to his mouth.

"Look, honey," Jenna said. "I believe you. However, if had been your mother and not me at the door, then it might have been a little harder to convince her. Remember, you _did _come down in your shorts and tank top with your hair messed up and your lips swollen." Jenna gives her teasing smile. "Like you were just kissing someone."

"Will you tell my mom?"

"Seriously?" Jenna asked offended. "After everything that we have done together? You think that I would tell her this?"

"Right," Elena laughed. "Off course not."

"Well," Jenna said and put her cup on the kitchen table next to the sink. "I'm going to take shower." The she walked out of the kitchen.

Damon put his cup on the table and walked over to Elena. "I'm going go. Before they get home." He kissed her on the cheek, and she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him softly. She started to pull him closer, and he put his hands to her waist. Then she started to rub her body against him and he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her down her neck.

She pulled back with a little smirk on her face. "I'll see you later."

He chuckled at bit. "You're not as innocent as you look. Are you?"

She just shrugged her shoulders and walked into the hallway.

They stopped in front of the door. "I'll talk to you later," Damon said and kissed her on the forehead.

"Sure," she said and opened the door.

But just as Damon was about to step out the door, Jenna's voice stopped him from the top of the stairs. "Are you doing anything tonight, Damon?"

Elena was alert. Her aunt has made plans and now she was inviting Damon. "I'm sure Damon has plans," Elena replied.

Damon could tell that if he went with them tonight he would get to see another side of Elena, one that she probably wouldn't want him to see, otherwise she wouldn't have said that he had plans for tonight. "Actually, a friend of mine just came into town." He smiled to Jenna. He could see Elena take a breath of relief as he said it.

"Well, you can just bring him," Jenna suggested.

He has a choice now. He could say that they already made plans for the evening, even though they didn't, but that would made Elena happy. Or he could tell the truth and say that they didn't have anything and they would like to be there tonight, and he would like to see Elena squirm a little. "Great," he said, then looked and Elena and smirked. She gave him a pleading look to say no. "We'll be there." And she closed her eyes.

"Great," Jenna said and disappeared.

"I'll see you tonight then," he said and kissed Elena on the cheek.

"Mmmhh..." she replied, not at all comfortable. Would it be wrong to enjoy her misery so much, he thought to himself. No, he concluded, it will be fun. He was still smirking as he got into his car and drove away.

XXXXX

"This is going to be so much fun," Jenna said as they walked into the Grill. Elena hasn't said much on the way to the bar. She has just been trying to make a plan for tonight, and now that they're at the Grill she has come up with a solution. If she doesn't get to drunk, then she won't get too crazy, but when they walked in, she realized that she would not be a little drunk, because Mason was working, and he liked to pour alcohol into his costumers.

As soon as they have walked in Jenna has seen Damon at a table with some other handsome guy in one of the booths. Jenna slid in next to the handsome guy, so that Elena could sit next to Damon. When they have sat down, Alaric turned to Jenna: "I'm Alaric, but you can call me Ric."

Jenna smiled at him. "I'm Jenna."

"Well," Damon said. "I hope it okay; we already ordered the first round." Then, Mason came to the table with two beers, two scotches and four shots.

"Oh my God," Elena said quietly to herself so that no one could hear.

Then Damon leaned in to her and whispered into her ear: "It's okay, babe, I can take your first shot, if it is too much for you." Then he kissed her on the cheek. She smiled back at him. She loved it when he called her nicknames.

After a few rounds, Elena realized that she was drunk, and Damon knew right away, because she had that empty look in her eyes that drunk people get, and she was starting to get a little loud.

"The next round," Mason suddenly said and put eight shots on the table.

"We didn't order this," Jenna said to Mason.

"It's on the house," he said and smiled.

"Cheers!" Alaric said and drank his shot and then the others did the same. "There is something I don't get." He was also really drunk. "You," he said and pointed a finger at Elena. "Are not 21. How can you get drinks?"

"We all know Mason fairly well," Elena smirked at Jenna. "Some better than others." Still looked at Jenna.

"Okay, Elena!" Jenna yelled. "I think we get your point." Then she shifted to a normal voice. "Mason and I dated once," she said to Damon and Alaric.

"And Mason doesn't say no, just because we're underage. He thinks that if he does that they won't make any money," Elena explained.

"Well, that sounds great!" Alaric exclaimed.

"Last one," Jenna said and lifted one of the four shots glasses. The others took a shot. "Cheers," they all said and drank.

Elena leaned towards Damon. She put her head on his shoulder and her arm around him.

"What do you mean: "last one"? We're not done drinking yet," Alaric said.

"I just mean, maybe we should continue the party somewhere else," Jenna winked at him. "I'll be right back. See you outside." Then she disappeared.

"Are you tired?" Damon asked Elena softly and stroked her back.

"A little," she replied.

"You want to go home?" He asked. He really cared for her, she thought to herself, like a boyfriend would. _Boyfriend_. The word echoed in her head. It sounded good.

"No," she said and smiled. Then she got up and got her jacket. "Let's go out and wait for Jenna." The guys got up and took their jackets as well.

"I'll be right there," Alaric said. "I have to go to the bathroom. You guys just go ahead."

"Sure," Damon replied. When they got out Elena awoke just as she felt the cold air touch her skin.

"Come," she said and grabbed Damon's hand. She walked over to where there was no light and no one would be able to see them.

Damon was confused for a second. Was she going to leave without the others? "What are we do-" that was all he got to say, when he was interrupted by Elena kissing him. First, it was a soft, casual kiss, but she started to grab onto him a bit more, and the kiss got harder, and they both started to pant for their breaths. Damon started to push Elena against the wall, and then he grabbed Elena by her ass and lifted her up against the wall. He started kissing her neck and going further down, and Elena's breath got heavier and heavier.

"Sorry to interrupt," Jenna's voice sounded behind them. So someone saw them, but if anyone else had seen them, the probably wouldn't have seen them, or at least recognized them. "Do you want to come with us? Or do you want to have sex on the street?"

Elena kissed Damon one last time and Damon let her go, then they followed Jenna and Alaric.

When they had walked about a hundred feet, Elena put her arm under Damon's jacket and put her arm around him, and he out his arm around her, so that his hand was in her back pocket of her pants, therefore on her ass.

"Where are we even going?" Alaric asked.

"Somewhere, Elena and I used to go to talk when I still lived here," Jenna replied, and Elena know exactly where that is, because it is always the place they go when they are drunk and get tired of the Grill, but one thing is missing.

"But aren't we missing something?" Elena asked.

"No," Jenna answered and turned around holding a bottle of scotch in her hand. Elena laughed, off course Jenna would remember, like she would ever forget any kind of alcohol.

A few minutes later, they got to a playground. They sit down on a bench. Jenna next to Alaric and Elena on Damon. "Okay, so what do we do now?" Damon asked.

"Now," Jenna replied, "we drink." Then she takes a sip of the bottle. "And tell all of our dirty little secrets." Elena remember clearly all the times her and Jenna had done this. All the secrets they had told to each other. The reason that they can trust each other. The reason they know everything about each other.

"Okay," Damon said and took the bottle out of Jenna's hands and took a big sip. "My secret is that…" he stopped and thought for a minute. "I don't know." He shrugged his shoulders. "I guess I don't have any secrets."

"Bull!" Jenna said and took the bottle from him. "You have to have at least _one_ secret."

"Okay. Fine. I hooked up with one of the teachers at college and I went from flunking the class to being the best student."

"Oh my god!" Jenna shouted. "You went to college?"

"Ha-ha," Damon replied. "Very funny."

"My turn," Alaric said and took the bottle. He took a big sip. "I hooked up with Isobel two days after you did," he said and pointed his finger to Damon.

"Dick," Damon simply replied.

"Okay," Jenna said and took the bottle. "The real reason I am here." Jenna smiled at Elena and took a sip of the bottle. "I got fired." She took another sip.

"I'm so sorry," Elena said.

"It's fine." Jenna waved her hand dismissively. "It just means that I get to spend some time with my favorite niece and my beloved sister, and maybe I can get to know that knew boyfriend of hers." Jenna smiled.

Elena gave Damon a look – the "I-have-terrible-news"-look. "What?" Jenna said.

Elena took a sip of the bottle. "Here is what I really think of your dad," she said and looked at Damon. "I hate him. He is horrible."

Damon touched Elena's chin and leaned in to kiss her.

"Well," Jenna said. "I am going to go home. Because this is empty." She threw the bottle on the ground. Damon and Elena pulled away from their kiss. Elena got off from Damon.

"We should go," Elena said and took a step to follow Jenna.

But Damon got up and grabbed her around the wrist. He pulled her into a soft kiss that lasted almost a minute. "Goodnight." He smirked at her.

She kissed him fast on the lips. "Goodnight. I'll see you tomorrow." She ran to catch up with Jenna and then she looked back at Damon with a huge smile on her face.

Alaric scoffed. "Dude."

Damon turned around. "What?"

Alaric shook his head. "You are totally falling for that girl."


	17. Chapter 17

**Sorry I haven't uploaded in a while, but here you have another chapter. I hope you'll enjoy it, and please leave review :)**

Chapter 17

"Why didn't you tell me that you were coming? I would have picked you up at the airport," Miranda said to her sister as she put coffee mugs on the table for the three of them.

"Please," Jenna said. "I can handle myself."

"I know," Miranda said and smiled. There was a short pause. "I'm just glad that you are here. Then you can meet Guiseppe." Then she sounded really excited. "We could all have dinner tonight, right Elena?" Miranda said and turned to her daughter.

"What?" She was alarmed immediately. Dinner with her, Guiseppe and Stefan? No thank you! "I actually have plans."

"Well, then you can meet the rest of the family," Miranda said and smiled. "His sons are great, too."

"Yeah, I actually met Damon last night," Jenna said and smiled. "He seems really great." She turned to look at Elena and gave her a teasing smile.

"Where is Guiseppe by the way?" Elena asked her mom.

"He is with Stefan in Virginia," Miranda said.

"Why?" Elena asked skeptically.

"Stefan is looking at a college," her mother replied.

"Off course he is," Elena said under her breath.

"Excuse me," her mother said.

"Nothing," Elena said and caught her aunt's look, who was smiling.

"why don't we go into the living room?" Jenna suggested. They all got up and then the doorbell rang.

"I'll get it," Elena said and left the kitchen and the other two headed for the living room.

A second later, Elena was at the door. In the open doorframe stood the one person, she could not have been happier to see.

"Hey beautiful," Damon said with a smirk on his face.

Then Elena did something unexpected. She pulled on his arm and he stepped inside, she closed the door and she pulled him into a searing kiss. He seemed stunned by surprise at first, but a second later, he kissed her back. She put her hand on his neck, and he put his hands around her hips and pushed her gently against the wall, then she put her fingers through his hair. After a few moments Damon pulled back. "What was that for?" he asked.

She shrugged. "I just wanted to." She said and smiled. She turned around to walk into the living room to her family, until Damon grabbed her arm. "What?" She said in surprise.

He laughed a little. "You have clearly not have many secret relationships." Elena looked confused. "You don't walk into the room where your mom is witting when your lips are still swollen from and amazing kiss." He smirked at her.

"So what am I supposed to do then?" She asked and arched an eyebrow.

"You just wait a little," he said like it was obvious.

"Okay?" She said and shook her head. "Doing what?"

"I don't know…" He shrugged. "Well," he said before ten seconds had passed. "Since we have some time to pass. Do you want to go out with me?"

"What?" She said and giggled a bit. "We have been out. Like yesterday." She smiled.

"No! On a real date. With dinner, and without our sidekicks," he said and looked into her eyes, expecting a yes.

"Okay, sure," she said, trying to act cool, but on the inside she was jumping up and down. "When?"

"Tonight."

"Thank God!" She exclaimed.

"Okay… Just act cool," he said and smirked, and then she hit him softly on the shoulder.

"My mom is planning a family dinner tonight," she explained.

"Seriously, don't they ever get tired of that?" He said and lifted an eyebrow. ¨

"Tell me about it!"

"I thought I heard a familiar voice," Miranda said from the kitchen. They both turned their heads, and Damon took a step back, Elena gave him a short glance before she looked at her mother to see if she had noticed anything, but it did not seem like it.

"What are you doing here, Damon?" She asked. Elena was completely gripped by fear. What would he say? _I'm just asking you daughter out._

"I can't find my jacket, thought I might've left it here, but Elena just said that she hasn't seen it, but maybe I put it in my truck," he smiled.

"I don't think I've seen it, either," Miranda replied and looked around.

"Well, then I'll just leave," he said and smiled, the headed for the door.

"Damon!" Miranda exclaimed. "There's a family dinner tonight. Would you like to join us?"

"I can't," he said, and Miranda's face showed complete disappointment. "Elena and I have plans." He pointed to Elena and Miranda's gaze changed from Damon to Elena.

"Yeah!" She said surprised. "We do. We have that… uhm…" she pointed at Damon. "thing… with… uhm…"

"With Caroline," Damon ended the sentence.

"Yeah Caroline," Elena carried on. "There wasn't that many that volunteered to help plan the next school dance, so she asked us, and you know how she can be. You just can't say no to her." Elena breathed out.

Miranda looked a bit confused. "Why are you helping, Damon?"

"Because I didn't want to do it alone," Elena interrupted.

"Off course," Miranda said and went into the living room to her sister.

"So," Damon said. "Should I pick you up around six?"

Elena gave him a big smile. "Sure."

"I'll see you later then," he said halfway out the door, but then he stepped back in and gave Elena a soft kiss.

"See you." Then she closed the door behind him.

XXXXX

Elena looked at herself in the mirror again. She was wearing a tight black dress that ended just before her knees and stilettoes. She was wearing her hair in a braid. Her make-up was simple, but like she wore it everyday. It was still special and date-like. When she had looked for a while and decided that she was happy about the outcome, she did a little twirl.

"You look beautiful," a voice said from the bathroom door.

Elena smiled. "Thank you, Bonnie." Then she look back in the mirror and smiled.

"I just can't believe that you're in love with Damon," Bonnie said, still trying to ingest the news that she had recently found out from her friend. After Damon had left earlier, Elena realized that she could not get ready at her own house and risking that her mother saw her all dressed up and ready for a date.

"Yeah, I know," she said and looked at Bonnie. "Me neither."

"When is he coming?" Bonnie asked and looked at her watch, even though she had no idea when he was supposed to be there.

"He should be here in a few minutes," Elena answered as she put on some lipstick.

"Does he know that you're here and not at home?" Bonnie asked.

"Yeah, I texted him earlier." Then she took one last glance and as if on cue, the doorbell rang.

"I'll get it," Bonnie said and went for the door. Elena went into Bonnie's room and got her coat and bag, and then she heard voices downstairs, and she went for the staircase. She could see that Bonnie and Damon were engaging in a conversation, but they both stopped when they saw her. Damon was very handsome, he was wearing a black suit that matched her black dress.

"Wow," Damon breathed. Elena came down the stairs, Damon's eyes did not wander for one second, he was mesmerized by her, which made her smile, because no one had ever looked at her like that, not even Matt. "You ready?" He asked when she reached them.

"Yeah," she smiled. Just before she grabbed Damon's arm, she turned to Bonnie. "Thank you."

"No problem," Bonnie smiled. "Enjoy your date."

"We will," Elena said, and they disappeared through the door.

When they had been driving for 15 minutes Elena got curious, they were already out of Mystic Falls, but how far would they go? "Where are we going?" Elena asked.

"To a place where no one knows us," he winked at her.

"Could you be a little more specific?"

"No." Damon paused. "Just enjoy the ride."

"I am," she said and smiled at him. Even though his eyes was on the road, he could feel her smile, which as always also made him smile. Then he sent for her hand and squished it.

When they had been driving for a good while, Damon finally stopped the car and got out, a few seconds later he was opening the door for her. She grabbed his hand, and when she was out of the car, she lingered her arm around his. He gave the car kays to some guy, who she could only assume was the valet.

When they got in a waiter was waiting for them. "Mr. Salvatore," he said and gestured them to follow him. When they were seated at the table, Damon ordered a bottle of champagne, and Elena was not asked to show any ID, which was unusual because she defiantly did not look 21.

"Well, this is fancy," Elena said and smiled at Damon.

"I figured that now that we are on a real date, we should really enjoy being with each other and being a little spoiled," Damon smiled back at her. "Especially now that no one knows us, " he smirked. Then he leaned over the table and gave her a soft kiss, and just as he was about to pull back, she grabbed his neck and kissed him for a couple of more seconds.

After dinner, Elena felt as the happiest girl in the world. She had had everything tonight: a fancy dinner that she never even imagined that she would have, champagne, which she also had never had, and it tasted delicious, and then there was Damon, the guy, who made all other guys look like assholes. He was perfect, maybe that was why she loved him.

Now they were standing at the top of the hotel that Damon had booked for the night. They were on the roof, looking out at the city. Usually Elena didn't fancy heights, but standing so close to Damon, she felt safe.

"Are you cold?" He asked as he caressed her cold arm.

"I'm fine," she said and curled in under his jacket with her arms around him. They stood like that for a while, and then they decided to go to the hotel room that Damon had ordered.

When they got in Elena took of her shoes and walked around in her bare feet. She caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror in the hallway. She looked just as when she left, her make-up was still perfect and so was her hair. There was only one thing that wasn't the same. Now, she was glowing, and she kind of liked it. Then Damon came up behind her and kissed her neck. "What are you thinking about?" he whispered into her ear.

"Nothing," she said and turned around. "Just don't want this night to end."

He kissed her softly, and she kissed him back. She felt his arms on her back lowering. Normally, she would pull back, but this actually felt right. She took off his jacket, and started to pull her hands through his hair as they kissed. His hands had reached her thighs and he lifted her onto the little table in the hallway. She spread her legs, so that he could stand closer to her. She pulled away from the kiss, and they both starred into each other's eyes for a few seconds. Then slow Elena started to unbutton his shirt, and he helped her with the buttons at the end of the sleeves and she pulled it off him. Then he kissed her neck and she pulled her head back in pleasure and he started to such a little and she gave a little moan, which made him smile. He pulled back, and then grabbed Elena and she twirled her legs around his waist. He tilted both of them onto the bed, then he kissed her again. They moved up on the bed. Damon kissed Elena and rolled over on his back. Elena immediately followed. She sat on top of him and continued kissing him and feel him down his chest, then he grabbed her arms and they stopped kissing.

"We can't do this," Damon said and looked her into the eyes. She looked hurt, and she rolled back to her side of the bed and further on to her side. He followed her, and put his arm around her.

Then he whispered into her ear. "We can't do this…" he said and held a short pause. "Because it is illegal." She rolled onto her back and looked into her back.

"So, it isn't me?" She said, her voice a bit shaky and tears in her eyes.

"Elena." He laughed a bit. He leaned over her, so that his torso covered hers. "There is absolutely nothing wrong with you, and believe me I really want this to happen, but I think it is safer to wait until you are 18."

"You could have started with that," she said blaming him. "You made me doubt everything."

"I'm sorry," he said and kissed her.

"What if we just don't tell anyone," she said and pulled her fingers through his hair and she leaned towards him and sucked a bit at his earlobe. He moaned a bit, and pulled her back and stared her into the eyes for a few seconds, then he gave her a searing kiss, and just when she thought she had convinced, he leaned back. "We better not." He smiled at her.

"I hate you," she said and glanced at him.

He leaned down to her again. "Doesn't mean we can't do stuff," he whispered into her ear and he kissed her neck and she pulled her arms around his neck…

XXXXX

Stefan, Guiseppe, Miranda and Jenna had just shared a lovely meal. Miranda was clearing out the table, and Jenna was doing the dishes, while the guys was still sitting at the table.

"Why aren't Damon and Elena here?" Stefan asked.

"They had to help Caroline preparing the next school dance," Miranda replied and went into the kitchen. But there had just been a dance, and there was months until the next dance. Then he realized something. It was so obvious. Why hadn't he seen it sooner? They were together – alone. He turned to his father. "Father, there's something I have to tell you."

"I know, son."

**Hope you all will have a great new year :D**


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

Damon drove up beside the Gilbert house and stopped the engine. "Thanks for a great evening," Elena said and leaned in to kiss Damon, and he leaned toward her so they met halfway. They kissed each other softly.

"I'll see you later?" Damon asked and held his hand on her neck and stared into her eyes.

"Yeah," she said and kissed him quickly. "Thanks, Damon," she said again and got out of the car, and right before she closed the door, she said: "And thanks for the clothes." When she had woken up this morning, she had woken up to coffee and breakfast but Damon had also been out to get her an everyday-dress for her to wear for when she got home, that way her mother or anyone else wouldn't be suspicious to why she would be dressed up all nice.

He turned on the engine, and as he drove of he blew her a kiss and she waved back at him.

When she got in the door, she leaned up against to collect herself. She had never felt this way in her life. She felt a shortness of breath and a weird oppression in her chest.

"Elena!" Her mother exclaimed. "There you are." She smiled and walked towards her. "Did you just come home?" Her mother looked suspicious at her daughter.

"Yeah, I slept at Bonnie's," Elena said smiling and started to walk towards the stairs.

"Elena, we're having dinner at the boardinghouse tonight, so don't make any plans," her mother said with a smile.

"Actually, then I guess you won't mind me going there a little early?" Elena asked. This way she could spend some time with Damon, she thought to herself and almost smiled.

"I guess not," Miranda said, then she smiled at her daughter and went into the living room again.

XXXXX

It wasn't more than a couple of hours ago that Damon dropped her off in her driveway, but now she was driving into his in her car. She'd kept the dress on, but she had added some make-up. She went into the house, decided that she would try to find Damon's room by herself, figuring that's where he would be. As she walked down the hall, she thought to herself that she ought to give this house – no mansion – more credit. She always underestimated how big it was. She went up the stairs to find a long hall filled with room. She opened the door to what she thought was Damon's bedroom. Turns out it was a bathroom.

Suddenly, someone took her from behind and pushed her against the wall and started to kiss her. First, she joked that she hoped to god it was Damon and not Stefan or another random dude, but then she could smell the familiar intoxicating smell of his delicious cologne, and she brushed her hands through his hair, and she wasn't questioning, whom it was anymore.

After a few minutes, he pulled away from her, but not letting her out of his grasp. "Hello to you too," Elena said with a teasing voice, and she gave him a quick kiss on the mouth.

"Hi," he said with seductive eyes and kissed her back.

Elena laughed nervously. "Now, I hope that we are alone in the house," she said with a warning voice.

"Why?" He asked with a challenging voice. Then he stepped closer, so that their entire bodies was touching. Then he kissed her softly on the mouth, then he started to kiss her jaw and down her neck, and she gave a little involuntary moan. Then he moved his hands from her hips to her back and down to her ass, then he lifted her up and she wrapped her legs around his waist. She started to breath heavily against his mouth and he smiled in triumph. She knew that soon he would pull away because to quote him: "it's illegal." She pulled her arms around his neck, and turned his head and kissed him. She nipped him a bit in his lip and he gave a little moan, and now she gave a little smile in triumph.

He pulled away from her mouth, so that he could speak. "Elena," he breathed.

"Sshh," she replied and kissed him again, then she started to go further down, ending at his collarbone. "Where is your bedroom?" She whispered sensually in his ear. And before she knew it, she was laying in his bed with him between her legs.

After a few minutes of kissing he said: "Don't worry. We're alone." He then started to kiss her further down to her collarbone. He reached under her dress with his hands and slided them across her back to the claps of her bra. Seconds later, it was open. He put one hand at the back of her neck and pulled her into a searing kiss, and his other hands started to cup her breast. "Damon." She breathed heavily. "I thought we couldn't do this?"

"We shouldn't," he said and kept kissing her. Then suddenly he stopped kissing her and took a few steps away from her. Seconds later Stefan came up the stairs to see Elena and Damon standing in front of each other.

"What are you guys doing?" Stefan asked sceptic.

"Well," Damon I said. "I live here." Stefan shook his head. Like he could expect a serious answer from Damon? "I was just showing Elena the bathroom."

"Okay," Stefan said. Could they at least try to hide it better? This is just too obvious. Elena looks completely flustered, and Damon's hair is a mess, not mention that both of their lips are completely swollen. "Anyway, just wanted to tell you that we're having dinner here tonight."

"Alright," Damon replied coolly.

After Stefan had left, Elena asked: "Do you think he knows?"

"Without a doubt." He looked down the hall after his brother. "But he can't prove it." After they both stood there for a while without saying anything. "Come," Damon said and took Elena's hand and led her into his room.

XXXXX

"Well, this was great," Miranda said after they'd all finished their meals, and she began to clear the table. "Who wants dessert?"

"Sounds great," Guiseppe said.

"Yeah, that sounds good," Stefan followed his father.

After Miranda had gone into the kitchen, Elena followed her. "Need any help?"

"That would be great," Miranda said with a smile on her face.

"I'll go get the last plates from the table," Miranda said and started to walk towards the door.

"No need," Damon said. "We're should I put these?" He asked as he looked at the plates in his hand. Elena couldn't help but smile.

"You can put them right here," Miranda said and pointed next to the sink. Damon put them where she had pointed. "Why don't you go out and entertain the guests?" Damon asked her with a smile. "I mean, you are the hostess. Elena and I can get the dessert." He smiled at Elena.

"That's so sweet of you, Damon," Miranda said and left the kitchen.

Damon then turned to Elena. "Well, I am I very nice person," he said with a teasing voice.

"I know you are," Elena replied as she walked towards him. She gave him a quick kiss and went for the dessert plates in the cabinet.

He pulled up behind her. "You call that a kiss?" He asked and grabbed her waist and started kissing neck.

"Well, yes," she said teasingly as she turned around. "My mom and your dad are in the next room, and they're not supposed to find out about us. In case you've forgotten."

"It's easy to forget when you are overwhelmed by your beauty," he said and arched an eyebrow.

Elena smiled. "Well, you just have to pull yourself together." She left the plates on the kitchen table and went for the dessert in the fridge. "If I know our parents as well as I think I do, then they'll leave after dinner."

"Oh, I hope your right," Damon said and walked over to her, and just as he was about to kiss her again, the door opened. Guiseppe walked in.

"How's it going with the dessert? Will we get it tonight?" He said teasingly.

"Of course," Elena replied and went into the dining room with the dessert.

"I hope you know what you're doing, Damon," Guiseppe said without any kind of face expression. "It could get dangerous for you."

"Is that a threat?" Damon asked disbelievingly.

"Relax, Damon. Just a friendly warning," he said and smiled. He then left the room as Elena entered.

"Are you okay?" She asked him with worry in her eyes.

He smiled at her. "Yeah, everything is fine." He took the plates and stroked her hair as he walked past her.


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

Damon and Elena was walking by the lake. They weren't holding hands, even though Elena really wanted to, but they didn't want risk anyone finding out about them. When they were behind some trees, Damon stopped, and Elena watched him for a second, taking in all of his glory.

"Is there something wrong?" She asked him when he still hadn't said anything. She put her small hand into his.

He smiled a bit at her. "We need to talk." He pulled his hand away from hers, and she started to worry.

"Damon-" she started, but he interrupted her.

"We need to be careful," he said with the sweetest look in his eyes. They were full of worry and care for her, and she couldn't help but smile. She wanted badly to give him a soft kiss, and tell him that she loved him. But she didn't because they were out in the open.

"We are," she said instead and smiled.

"No," he said and took a step back, so they weren't so close. "My father knows." Elena stood for a few seconds in shock.

"What?" Another long pause. "How?"

"I don't know," he said and shook his head. "But I was thinking maybe we should take a break or something.."

"What?!" Elena exclaimed a little to loudly. "No. Look, Damon, I will talk to my mom. I'm sure she'll understand."

"No, Elena, you can't." He took her hand. "Please. Promise me you won't."

"Okay," she said and looked him deeply into the eyes. He kissed her on the forehead, and they walked back to the mansion.

XXXXX

Later, Elena was lying in her bed with her best friend, Bonnie. "So, how are things with Damon?" Bonnie asked.

"Uhm, fine," Elena said and smiled.

"Really?" Bonnie replied. "That's all you'll give me? "uhm, fine", seriously? What's wrong, Elena?" Bonnie said and made eye contact.

Elena knew that she had given herself away, and that she could not hide anything from her best friend. They had simply been friends for too long. They knew each other all too well, Elena thought for a second. Then she sighed and said: "You want the good news or the bad new first?"

"Good!" Bonnie exclaimed and got all excited. This could only have something to do with Damon.

"Okay, I'm not really sure if it's good news," she started. "This morning, Damon and I took a walk by the lake near their house, and he gave me some disturbing news. Anyway, I almost told him I loved him, like it was a casual thing to do."

"Well, you have been together for a while now. It wouldn't be weird for you to have these feelings," Bonnie explained to Elena.

"The thing is I didn't even realize it until later. I was completely shocked. And we haven't been together for that long," Elena said as-a-matter-of-factly.

"Oh, yeah?" Bonnie asked. "How long have the two of you been sneaking around?"

Elena thought about it for a second and concluded that it might have been a few months. "Fine, I see your point." Elena smiled. "Okay, bad news."

"Wait," Bonnie exclaimed. "Can we just wait a second?"

"Sure, why?" Elena asked confused.

"It's just…" Bonnie trailed off. "It's been so long since I have seen you smile like this and just being happy." Bonnie smiled at her best friend.

"Well," Elena said and smiled again. "He makes me happy."

"Yeah, I can tell." Bonnie starred at Elena.

"So, bad news," Elena said. "His father knows."

Bonnie looked confused. "You say it like it's a horrible thing?"

"It is!" Elena exclaimed. "Guiseppe hates Damon. It's like he is trying to ruin him."

"Oh, I see." Bonnie nodded understanding.

"And it doesn't really help that what we are doing is illegal," Elena said quietly and mostly to herself.

Bonnie sat silently for a while. She didn't know what to say. "If you talked to your mom, I'm sure she'd understand."

"I'm not 100 percent sure," Elena said with a worried tone in her voice. "And I wouldn't want to jeopardize Damon's trust on it. I promised I wouldn't."

"Yeah, well. Do you want to tell her or would you want Guiseppe to tell her," Bonnie pointed out.

Elena laid back and starred into the air. Maybe Bonnie was right. Her mother would rather her it from Elena than her new boyfriend. The two best friends laid in silence next to each other until it suddenly knocked on the door.

"Are you ready?" Said the eager voice as she walked through the door.

"With what?" Elena asked in confusion.

"Isn't it your birthday in two weeks, silly?" Answered the blonde.

"Right," said Elena. She smiled to herself. Two more weeks and she could be with Damon wherever they wanted. It could be in her room, but it could also be in the street or at city hall because they wouldn't have to hide anymore.

"Not too big, Caroline!" Elena warned her other best friend. She knew that Caroline had a tendency to overdo things.

"Are you kidding me, Elena?" Caroline almost shouted. "It's your 18th birthday! We'll invite all the seniors and the people that we outside of school. Like the two college boys I just met last weekend." Caroline winked.

Elena shook her head and laughed towards Bonnie. She knew her blonde friend very well, and this would not be a small part. At all.

"We should at least talk to my mom, so that she knows what's going to happen," Elena said.

"Sure," Caroline said. Then they all got up and walked down stairs to her mother to discuss the party.


End file.
